WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

After a battle to the bitter end with #21 Indiana Wesleyan (20-7, 11-4) at Platt Arena, the #RV Huntington women’s basketball team found themselves on the wrong end of a 56-52 decision Wednesday night. The loss snaps HU’s four-game win streak as Culler and crew move to 19-8 overall, 8-7 in league play.

It’s well documented around the league that both teams pride themselves on defense and tonight’s contest was a testament to that. IWU entered the evening allowing just 59.1 points per game while the Foresters give up slightly more at 60.9 points per game. The defensive intensity was escalated even more on this given night as evidenced by the final score.

Overall, the Wildcats held their hosts in check except for Sarah Fryman who posted her third straight game of scoring at least 30 points. The 5-9 forward unleashed for 31 points which included scoring all 11 of HU’s first quarter points. She also led her team in steals with three. Erin Mohr and Alaina Rongos each tossed in seven points. Alexandria Bope finished with a team-leading six rebounds.

As is expected in a close game, the first half featured nine lead changes and six ties with the Wildcats eventually taking a 24-23 advantage into intermission. The Foresters quickly made up that difference and then some when Mohr knocked down a three and then followed that up with a quick bucket downlow in transition to give Huntington a 28-24 lead less than two minutes into the third quarter.

Things seemed to be trending in the right direction for Culler and company as their advantage still stood at four, 31-27, shortly after. Unfortunately, the Wildcats had other plans as thing took a drastic turn the rest of the quarter. IWU spent the final seven minutes outscoring HU 17-6 to open up the game’s largest lead up to that point at 44-37.

Wesleyan added a quick bucket to start the fourth to extend their lead to nine. Thankfully there is no quit in Culler’s squad. Seven straight points by Huntington put them right back in the thick of things. It would remain a two-possession game the rest of the way, so it came down to execution in the end and the Wildcats made it happen. Dayton Groninger went 4-for-4 from the line in the final 30 seconds to keep HU at arm’s length.

Groninger, after scoring just two points in the opening 20 minutes, finished with a team-best 16 points to go along with five rebounds and four steals. Anne Secrest added 11 points.

The Foresters will look to regroup by Saturday when they hit the road to Bethel for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off with the Pilots.