WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The HU women’s basketball team wrapped up their own classic with a 68-58 loss to IU South Bend (6-2) Saturday afternoon at Platt Arena.

In a game where a majority of the final stats looked similar for both teams, it came down to what happened from deep that proved the difference. Eleven of the Titans’ 23 field goals came from long range while the Foresters rattled in six of their 22 field goals from the cheap seats.

The two squads were within two offensive rebounds of each other with IUSB holding a slight 14-12 advantage while trips to the charity stripe were also similar with the guests going 11-for-11 and HU connecting on eight of their ten attempts.

The Foresters ended up taking better care of the ball by committing 12 blunders to the Titans’ 20.

After HU forced a tie in the first quarter and then drew two more stalemates in the second as well as claimed two short-lived advantages, the Titans closed out the half on an 11-1 run to send their hosts into the locker room down 33-25.

IU South Bend cushioned their lead by eight more points in the third for a 55-39 lead. It’s been an all-to-familiar pattern for Culler’s crew as of late that they head into the final quarter on the wrong end of the score but fortunately they never go down without a fight. This time around they spent the last ten minutes of the contest chipping away at their deficit to outscore the Titans by six before conceding the loss.

Celeste Ryman and Maddy Robrock each tossed in 14 points to pace the Foresters. Alli Vaughn came off the bench to chip in 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Emily Seboe, who was named to the All-Classic Team, also ripped down seven boards to share team-high rebounding honors with Vaughn to go along with collecting eight points and five assists.

Sara Doi and Katie Gard topped IU South Bend with 17 points each while Rachael Robards added 15 points.

HU (2-4) is off until Saturday when they host Taylor at 1:00 p.m. for their conference opener.