WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The final score of 83-61 that favored #7 Indiana Wesleyan (13-3, 5-1) over the Huntington women’s basketball team wasn’t indicative of the Crossroads battle that really took place Wednesday night inside Platt Arena.

The Foresters went toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s best for more than three quarters before the game got out of reach for the hosts. In fact, Maggard and crew were the aggressors early on. Loudonville High School teammates Celeste Ryman and Emily Seboe fueled a 25-point first quarter performance.

Seboe dropped in two threes and went 1-for-2 at the line for seven points while Ryman put Huntington’s first points on the board with an old-fashioned three-point play on her way to six points in the first ten minutes. Up by as many as five in the quarter, the Foresters held onto a 25-24 advantage by quarter’s end.

Both teams cooled off in the second quarter with Gabi Melby’s trey at the 7:30 mark upping HU’s lead to 28-24. The Wildcats pieced together five straight points after that to take their first lead since early in the contest. The final six minutes of the first half featured six lead changes and two ties before IWU headed to the locker room up 40-36.

While the Foresters never reclaimed the lead, they were still in the thick of it for much of the quarter. Melby knocked down two more threes in the third to force a deadlock each time with the last, 48-48, at the 5:08 mark.

Unfortunately, less than two minutes later, the guests reaped the benefit of what proved a four-point swing in a single possession. After Maddie Lawrence scored down low on an assist by Sadie Knee, HU was whistled for a  foul on Knee’s pass. It sent Knee to the charity stripe where she made both free tosses to increase IWU’s advantage from two to six at 55-49.

HU never really recovered from the play as seven points stood between the two teams heading into the final ten minutes. Wesleyan then turned on the afterburners by way of a 14-2 run to start the fourth to blow the game wide open at 75-56 with five minutes to go.

IWU attacked the rim much of the night as evidenced by scoring 48 points in the paint and getting to the line 36 times to HU’s 12. The guests finished 50.0 percent from the field (27-for-54) while the Foresters canned 41.1 percent of their field goals (23-for-56).

Melby led HU in scoring and rebounding with 16 and nine respectively for a near double double. Seboe finished with ten points. Ryman and Alli Vaughn added eight points each. Ryman also collected four assists, three rebounds and two steals while Vaughn posted seven boards, three assists and matched Ryman with two steals.

Jade Nutley topped all scorers with 20 points. Lilli Frasure tossed in 13 while Baylie Vandyke recorded ten points for the Wildcats.

Huntington (6-10, 1-5) heads to Mishawaka on Saturday to face Bethel at 1:00 p.m.