MEN’S BASKETBALL

A sluggish start for the HU men’s basketball team coupled with a fast start for Mount Vernon was a recipe for disaster for the Foresters Saturday afternoon at Ariel Arena. Staring at a 15-2 deficit less than four minutes in, Alford and crew never really recovered to suffer a 102-85 loss to the Cougars.

While the visitors’ response of seven straight points was promising to make for a 15-9 game, MVNU fired right back with another spurt to put build a 15-point buffer of 26-11 by the 12-minute mark. The rest of the frame was evenly played for a 53-27 Cougar lead heading into the break.

Mount Vernon outscored HU by just one in the second period. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done through the first 12 minutes to make for the 17-point disparity by game’s end.

“I was disappointed with our performance today,” said Coach Kory Alford. “We still have to learn how to defend consistently and play tougher when we play away from home.

“We dug ourselves into a hole early and were weren’t able to string together enough defensive stops to fight back.”

While HU gave up 25 more points than usual, it was also an off day of shooting from deep for the Foresters who connected on 27.0 percent of their threes (10-for-37) compared the Cougars who went 16-for-31 from long range (51.6 percent).

Hank Pulver topped Huntington with 19 points. Alford’s bench came up big with Mitchell Wilson and Spencer Ballinger pouring in 18 and 13 points respectively. Ballinger also tracked down a team-best six rebounds and dished out four assists. Rounding out Huntington’s double-digit scoring was Zach Goodline with 15 points. The 6-1 playmaker also posted six assists, four rebounds and two steals.

“Spencer and Mitchell gave us great minutes off the bench and their energy helped us cut into their early lead,” noted Alford.

Jevon Knox was one of four Cougars to finish with at least 20 points. The 6-3 senior guard piled up 24 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Clay Hilliard, Kyle Kegley and Kade Ruegsegger dropped in 20 apiece. Kegley (11) and Ruegsegger (12) also pulled down double-figure rebounds for double doubles. Eric McLaughlin came off the bench to post 12 points, six rebounds and five assists.

With today’s win, Mount Vernon enjoys the regular season sweep over Huntington to improve to 5-9 overall, 5-6 in CL play. HU (13-7, 6-6) takes a break from Crossroads League action to host Grace Christian on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.