MEN’S BASKETBALL

A late spurt Friday night at Platt Arena catapulted the Forester men’s basketball team to an 88-75 win over the visiting Eagles of Judson University on opening night of the Ness Bros. Hall of Fame Tournament. The win preserves HU’s perfect record at 3-0 and sends the hosts to the championship game of the tourney where they will face 11th-ranked Olivet Nazarene who disposed of East-West earlier tonight 122-89.

Including tonight, the Foresters have faced Judson five times since 2008 and have come away with a win every time.

After no more than two possessions separated the two teams through the first 29 minutes of play, Caleb Middlesworth’s trey with 11 minutes remaining gave his team the largest lead of the night up to that point at 59-52. It was the beginning of the end for the visitors as they watched a closely-contested game turn into a lopsided affair.

The Eagles trimmed the deficit to three at 61-58 over the next 90 seconds but that was all she wrote. Over the next five minutes, HU went on a tear to outscore their visitors by 17. Spencer Ballinger spearheaded the scoring palooza by pouring in 11 of his 23 points during the stretch to balloon HU’s lead to 82-62 with four minutes to go.

Judson would cut into the lead by seven but Huntington still managed to cruise to the double-digit victory.

While Ballinger was Judson’s Achilles heel during the aforementioned five-minute spurt, they had their hands full with Konner Platt the rest of the time. The 6-2 senior missed just four shots on the night in addition to going a perfect 12-for-12 from the line to finish with a season-best and game-high 35 points.

Middlesworth added 15 points and six rebounds. The Foresters also got some good production from their bench. Klajd Kiri finished with a game-best ten rebounds and four points. Keegan Fetters went 3-for-3 from the floor on his way to racking up seven points. He also posted three rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Johnny Flynn topped Judson with 20 points while Bryce Prochaska and Jordan Johnson added 16 and 15 points respectively.

Tip-off against the Tigers is slated for 3:00 p.m. tomorrow.