WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Odle Arena hasn’t been a friendly place for the Huntington women’s basketball team in recent years and Wednesday evening was no different in a 76-56 ballgame that favored Taylor (5-4, 1-2). The Trojans have strung together nine straight Ws over HU at their place.

HU got off to a solid start having led the majority of the first quarter but trailed by one at 14-13 by the first break. Alli Vaughn’s three-pointer and Konnor Gambrell’s traditional three-point play early in the second quarter put the Foresters back on top at 19-16.

With six minutes left in the half, Ruby Bolon kissed one of the glass to preserve HU’s three-point advantage at 21-18 before the hosts closed out the frame on a 13-4 run to take a 31-25 lead into intermission.

Claycee West opened up the third with a long ball to extend her team’s lead to nine after which the Trojans spent the rest of the quarter building a 12-point cushion of 52-40. The final ten minutes proved both team’s most productive quarter with the Trojans tossing in 24 points to HU’s 16 to make for the final 20-point disparity.

HU committed a season-low 11 turnovers while forcing their hosts to cough up the ball 15 times. But unfortunately, Maggard and crew didn’t have an answer for TU’s bigs in 6-1 Taylor Westgate and 6-4 Gretchen Moll who put up 19 and 18 points respectively.

The pair hauled in 25 of their team’s 41 rebounds as both finished with double doubles. West added 18 points for TU while Ariel Dale tossed in ten. Taylor’s starters accounted for all but two of their total points.

Gambrell finished with 15 points and five rebounds to lead the Foresters. Gabi Melby recorded nine points. Vaughn and Dazia Drake each finished with eight points and pulled down four and five boards respectively. Emily Seboe also finished with five rebounds.

Huntington (3-7, 0-3) is back on the road again Saturday to face Mount Vernon at 1:00 p.m.