WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The HU women’s basketball team played spoiler to Goshen’s senior night by handing their hosts an 86-75 loss Wednesday evening. The win ups Huntington’s overall record to 12-8 which includes an 8-7 league record.

With one regular season game remaining, the Foresters are tied for fifth in the CL standings with a chance to finish as high as fourth depending on how things pan out across the league on Saturday.

Playing in Gunden Gymnasium over the years has never been easy for Culler and crew with tonight no different. The Foresters also had to overcome the added energy from senior night along with TaNiece Chapman scoring her 1,000th career point and Claire Rauck knocking down her 100th career three-pointer. They passed with flying colors to tally their ninth double digit win of the year.

While Goshen’s only lead came on the opening possession, they never let their guests stray too far ahead. HU’s biggest lead was 12 points on a few occasions in the second quarter but a double-figure difference was a rarity otherwise.

After seven points separated the two teams, 41-34, at halftime, the third quarter proved much more dicey.

Chapman’s old fashioned three-point play that landed her a spot on Goshen’s 1,000 point club not only sent the GC bench and stands into a frenzy, but it also knotted things up at 54-54 with three minutes left in the quarter. But a calm and collected Forester squad stayed the course to close out the stanza on a 7-1 run to take a 61-55 lead into the final ten minutes.

The Maple Leafs (7-19, 3-12) kept the pressure on – dwindling the lead to a single point twice early in the fourth before the Foresters slowly pulled away. Back-to-back buckets by Logan Rowles sparked her team after which Konnor Gambrell took over the game. The 6-0 sophomore was a perfect 4-for-4 from the line with a layup in between her two trips to the charity stripe to cushion HU’s lead to seven at 79-72 with just over two minutes remaining.

Erica Zook knocked down four freebies after that while Sam Vaughn went 3-for-4 to put even more distance between the two squads by game’s end. When all was said and done, HU went 23-for-25 from the free throw line for 92.0 percent which included knocking down all but one of their 14 fourth quarter attempts.

Vaughn finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. The 5-6 guard has scored 20+ points in three of the last four games. Emily Seboe drained three long balls in the first quarter on the way to posting 16 points. She also collected eight boards in addition to swiping three steals.

Maddy Robrock and Zook added 12 points apiece while Gambrell tossed in a career-best ten points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter. Bench scoring favored HU 28-7.

Chapman poured in 20 points and corralled six rebounds to pace Goshen. Rauck racked up 19 points which included draining five three-pointers. Keyaira Murff rounded out the Maple Leafs double-digit scoring with 12 points.

Huntington has enjoyed eight consecutive wins over Goshen. Next up is home game against Grace on Saturday to wrap up the regular season.