WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The Huntington women’s basketball team’s win streak came to an end with an 83-74 loss to Midway (5-8) Tuesday afternoon at Marshall Gymnasium. Today’s loss is the first in six outings as the Foresters drop to 7-5 on the season.

The guests’ only lead of the day came 90 seconds in when Emily Seboe hit the first of her three triples for a 3-2 HU advantage. The Eagles scored the next six points to surge back on top at 8-3 and then spent the rest of the quarter building on that advantage. They scored more than half of their first quarter points  in the paint to go up 23-15 by quarter’s end.

The Eagles’ continued focus on scoring in the lane not only paid dividends on the scoreboard but also took its toll on Huntington’s defenders as evidenced by five Foresters saddled with two fouls heading into the locker room.

HU’s first half woes lead to a 41-27 hole to start the third quarter. Highlighted by some sharpshooting which included a pair of threes early in the frame by Seboe, two more from Bailey Kelham and one from Gabi Melby, the Foresters scratched and clawed to within six at 57-51 with just over two minutes left in the quarter.

Unfortunately, Bree Howard came to the rescue for Midway by scoring six of her nine points in the final two minutes of the third to up her team’s lead back to double digits at 63-53.

Maggard’s never-say-die squad continued the fight, trimming it to single digits multiple times throughout the fourth with seven points separating the two teams, 79-72, with just over a minute to play. HU got two consecutive stops after that to create an opportunity to creep even closer, but it wasn’t to be as Midway ended up staving off their upset-minded visitors.

As it turned out, Huntington outscored the Eagles in each of the last two quarters, but it was the padding Midway had established in the first 20 minutes that the guests weren’t able to overcome. Melby led Huntington’s second half charge by scoring 18 of her 25 points in the final 20 minutes. Kelham finished with 16 points. Olivia Raby added 12 while Seboe dropped in 11 to go along with a team-best nine rebounds to just miss out on a double double.

Midway was paced by Jaiden Douthit’s 17 points. Jermyra Christian and Sereniti Webb chipped in 16 apiece.

The Foresters are off until December 30 when they host Ohio Christian at 1:00 p.m.