WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The Forester women’s basketball team wasn’t bother by the chaos of the Grace Lancers’ full court defense as evidenced by their 79-65 victory Wednesday night inside Platt Arena.

With this win, HU improves to 9-7 overall which includes a 2-4 record in CL action. Their 2-4 conference record puts them in a three-way tie with Grace and Goshen for the sixth spot in the league standings.

It was Huntington’s fast start that set the tone for the entire evening. Liv Raby made it clear right from the jump that she was a force to be reckoned with down low. In between scoring her team’s first two buckets, she swatted Grace’s first shot attempt. She finished with three blocks in the opening five minutes while scoring six points in the quarter.

Camping out in the cheap seats, Bailey Kelham was also a handful for the Lancers. She knocked down two from deep in the first five minutes on her way to drilling eight threes for the game. Between her and Raby, the pair scored all but seven of their team’s first quarter points for a 21-9 HU lead after the opening ten minutes.

The double-digit advantage was steadfast for Maggard and crew the rest of the way. The Foresters’ largest lead came two minutes into the fourth quarter on the heels of back-to-back triples by Kelham that put her team on top 63-42.

In addition to Kelham’s red hot shooting, Raby and Gabi Melby were also key cogs in HU’s offensive success throughout the night. The trio accounted for all but 15 of their team’s 79 points.

Kelham unleashed for a season-best 28 points. Raby dropped in a career-tying 22 points having gone 11-for-15 from the field. She also filled the stat sheet with eight rebounds, five blocks and three assists.

Melby, in addition to netting 14 points, dissected Grace’s press while handing out seven dimes in the process. Addie Shank offered valuable minutes off the bench by scoring seven points and tracking down eight boards.

As a team, HU scorched the nets from beyond the arc by canning 11 of their 23 attempts for 47.8 percent which included Kelham’s 8-for-13 performance. The hosts posted an overall shooting percentage of 48.4 percent with 17 of their 31 made field goals assisted. While they only got to the line seven times to Grace’s 25, Huntington knocked down all but one of their freebies while their visitors made good on 18 for 72.0 percent.

Huntington was also honed in defensively. holding their guests to 33.8 percent shooting (22-for-65). Morganne Houk finished with 16 points and nine rebounds for the Lancers. Maddy Poynter also scored 16 points while Peyton Murphy chipped in ten.

Huntington heads to Spring Arbor on Saturday for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off with the Cougars.