WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

It was the tale of two halves for the Forester women’s basketball team Saturday afternoon at Platt Arena. After playing within four points of one of the nation’s best in the first half, HU couldn’t get anything going in the third quarter on the way to suffering an 82-63 loss to #15 Marian.

Five ties and four lead changes characterized the opening 20 minutes but the Knights made sure that didn’t happen in the second frame by scoring on 12 of their first 13 possessions coming out of break. Over that six-minute spell, it went from a 38-34 halftime difference to a lopsided 60-39 MU advantage.

Although Maggard and crew played even with their guests the rest of the way, the damage had already been done with Huntington never able to make much of a dent in MU’s lead.  With the win, Marian wraps up the regular season sweep over the Foresters and improves to 19-5 overall which includes a 12-2 CL record. The loss drops HU to 13-11, 6-8 in league action.

The guests won the battle of the boards 44-33 which included converting 13 offensive rebounds into 20 points. They also dominated scoring in the paint to the tune of a 48-20 edge.

Huntington’s advantage came at the charity stripe where they knocked down 26 of their 30 attempts for 86.7 percent while limiting the Knights to 17 trips of which they connected on 11 for 64.7 percent.

Gabi Melby led all scorers with 20 points to go along with two steals and two assists. Liv Raby finished with 12 points which included going a perfect 8-for-8 from the line. The 6-1 center also pulled down seven boards as did Addie Shank for a share of team-best rebounding honors.

Abbey McNally, this week’s offensive and defensive CL player of the week, posted a double double of 17 points and 12 points to lead the Knights. Olivia Faust added 15 points while Taylor Double and Madisyn Bailey tossed in 12 and 11 points respectively.

The Foresters make the short trip to Winona Lake on Wednesday to take on Grace at 5:30 p.m.