WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Wednesday night’s home game against Spring Arbor, which marked the start of the second round of league play, didn’t go as planned for the Forester women’s basketball team as they dropped an 87-84 decision to their guests.

The first time these two squads met up was last week when HU nabbed a 76-67 road win, so it was sweet revenge for the Cougars as tonight’s victory evened up the regular season series. The win bumps Spring Arbor to 14-6 overall which includes a 4-6 league record while the Foresters drop to 8-12 on the season, 3-7 against their CL peers.

Huntington led after each of the first three quarters and enjoyed the game’s largest disparity of 66-58 early in the fourth on Logan Rowles’ long ball. Emily Seboe, who had been quiet most of the night, kicked off the last ten minutes with her first of three triples in the quarter. Her second came with 3:38 remaining and pushed her team’s lead up to six at 73-67.

Unfortunately, the final three minutes belonged to the Cougars. The guests scored the next eight points to surge in front 75-73. It was their first lead since early in the second quarter. Rowles, who arguably had the best game of her career, answered immediately with a second chance bucket to knot things up at 75-75 but SAU went right back to work.

Spring Arbor scored on every possession after that to reestablish the lead and never let it go despite the Foresters’ gritty effort to get back in it. When all was said and done, SAU nailed four three-pointers in the last four minutes and went 6-for-6 from the line in the final :15 seconds to deny HU the heroic finish they were fighting for.

Rowles had a great night off the bench to finish with a career-best 19 points by going 7-for-9 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. She also corralled four rebounds and snagged a steal.

Konnor Gambrell poured in 17 points to go along with four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Alli Vaughn tossed in 15 points while Celeste Ryman added 13 and handed out three assists. Seboe finished with 11 points, all in the fourth quarter.

As a team, the Foresters shot a season-best 51.8 percent (29-for-56) from the floor which included draining ten of their 19 three-point attempts. HU also sizzled the nets at the line by going 16-for-19 for 84.2 percent.

Spring Arbor was led by Alana Nelson who poured in a game-best 26 points. Other double-digit point getters for SAU included Daelynn Jackson with 17, Alex Long with 16 and Alize Tripp with 11.

HU hits the road on Saturday to take on Grace at 1:00 p.m.