MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Huntington men’s basketball team picked up an impressive road win Tuesday night at Lingle Court by outlasting 13th-ranked IU East 73-71. The Foresters are off to a good start with a 2-0 record while the Red Wolves drop to 1-2 on the year.

“I am absolutely very thrilled to get a road win over a very good opponent,” said Coach Platt. “I’m proud of the effort we played for 40 minutes, the attention to detail and commitment to the defensive end.

“We didn’t play perfect by any stretch, but the guys played their roles and fought like dogs all night long.”

While the first half was a defensive battle with the score tipping in favor of the hosts 28-25, offensive was more plentiful in the final 20 minutes as the two teams leveraged for any sort of advantage. The evening saw nine ties and 19 lead changes with the biggest swing coming midway through the second half when HU turned a three-point deficit into a seven-point advantage of 52-45 with just over nine minutes remaining.

Konner Platt’s six points which included a rare four-point play highlighted the run. Seven points proved the largest disparity of the contest for either team but IU East was quick to confront it by reeling off eight of the next ten points to regain the lead at 55-54. The hosts would enjoy two more brief advantages before Caleb Middlesworth drained his fourth triple of the night at the 5:57 mark to give Platt and company a permanent lead of 61-59.

The Foresters got the job done after that by scoring on seven of their final ten possessions to slip past their ranked opponent for the big win.

Platt topped all scorers with 25 points to go along with three assists. Middlesworth posted 22 points, four rebounds and three assists. Spencer Ballinger was active at both ends of the floor to finish with 12 points, six rebounds, a career-best six steals and four assists.

Andrew Yoder took charge on the glass to claim a career-best and team-high eight rebounds. Klajd Kiri came off the bench to add seven points, five boards and three blocks.

Bishop Smith paced IU East with 19 points while Isiah Moore and Keating Rombach netted 16 and 13 points respectively.

“We look forward to hosting our Hall of Fame tourney this weekend,” said Platt. “We have some really good teams coming and we are excited to put HU basketball’s first national tournament team in our Hall of Fame.”

The Foresters open up the Ness Bros. Hall of Fame Tournament with Judson University on Friday at 8:00 p.m.