MEN’S BASKETBALL

It was all Indiana Wesleyan Tuesday night at Luckey Arena where the #2 Wildcats downed the visiting HU men’s basketball team 97-66. With this loss, the Foresters drop to 9-10 on the year, 1-6 in league action.

IWU, with seven straight wins under their belt, improves to 16-3 overall, 6-1 in CL play. The Wildcats currently sit atop the league standings. They claim one of the best offenses in the nation as evidenced by their No. 5 ranking in NAIA Division II in scoring (90.9 ppg) and tonight proved no different despite the Foresters holding Kyle Mangas, who averages 27.1 points per outing, to just 15 points.

Wesleyan didn’t seem to miss a beat; however, as they dipped into their arsenal of offensive weapons to land two other players in double digits which included Tanner Rubio with 21 points and Seth Maxwell with 13. A total of 13 Wildcats got into the scoring column.

Freshman Hank Pulver had a banner night by pouring in a career-high 21 points to go along with four assists, two blocks and a steal to lead Huntington. Konner Platt added 15 points and grabbed a game-leading seven rebounds. David Arens and Keegan Fetters came off the bench to chip in eight and seven points respectively.

The hosts took control early with a 14-2 lead four minutes into the contest. While the Foresters trimmed it to nine twice after that with the last, a 23-14 difference at the 11:52 mark, the Wildcats fired right back to score on their next six possessions to balloon the lead to 17 at 36-19 with just under nine minutes left in the period.

IWU went on to take a 51-31 advantage into the break and then spent the final 20 minutes widening the gap to 31 by game’s end. Wesleyan is 8-0 this season when playing on their home turf.

HU returns to Platt Arena on Saturday to host #8 Marian at 3:00 p.m.