WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #RV HU women’s basketball team hosted its 10th annual Pink Out Saturday afternoon where they raised over $2,000 for the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer and recognized 14 breast cancer survivors at intermission with the cherry on top a 74-57 win over Spring Arbor University (8-15, 2-10).

With this win, the Foresters remain perfect in their Pink Out games at 10-0. It also marks HU’s fourth straight win as they improve to 15-8 overall, 8-4 in league play. Culler’s crew has strung together five consecutive wins over the Cougars with SAU’s last W over the Foresters dating back to January of 2016.

Sarah Fryman led a balanced attack for Huntington with 13 points and a team-best four assists. Maddie Richer added 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting which included two long balls. Brooke Saylor, saddled with foul trouble much of the first half, finished with 11 points, a game-best seven rebounds and three assists.

Hailey Krewald tossed in ten points and sniped three passes. To date, she has logged 44 steals to average 1.9 per outing to rank third among her league peers.

Cindy In’t Groen and Sam Hammel offered valuable minutes off the bench. In her 15 minutes of PT, In’t Groen netted nine points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Hammel tallied eight points and tracked down six rebounds, three of which were of the offensive variety.

For the fourth time this season, the Foresters shot over .500 for the game by going 26-for-51 for 51.0 percent. They missed just four of their 21 free throw attempts for 81.0 percent from the line and committed a season-low six turnovers to make for one of their most efficient offensive outings of the year.

The first quarter was up for grabs as the two teams swapped the lead several times and forced four ties but just over a minute into the second quarter, the Foresters established a permanent lead on Krewald’s “pick six.”

It was the first of two steals in a three-minute span Krewald would convert for easy layups. HU also buried three of their five threes in the frame to up their advantage to as many as 12 before heading into the locker room with a 34-27 lead.

The Cougars finished the game with 11 threes, the sixth time this year they’ve registered double-digit treys. It was the first five minutes of the third that the Foresters really felt the sting of SAU’s hot shooting as the visitors canned three on the way to trimming the lead to four, 42-38, by the 4:33 mark.

Spring Arbor went stone cold after that to finish the quarter 0-7 while HU rattled off 13 straight points to blow the game wide open, 55-38, heading into the fourth. Four different Foresters put points on the board in those last four minutes spearheaded by Fryman who scored four points and dished out two assists during the spurt.

It was an evenly played final ten minutes as 17 points still separated the two teams by game’s end for HU’s eleventh double digit victory of the year.

Autumn Goggin topped the Cougars with 16 points, six rebounds and four assists. Gracie Cabana came off the bench to record 14 points while Rachel Nelson added 12.

Next up for the Foresters is a rematch with Grace College on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. where they will look to avenge a 67-61 loss to the Lancers earlier this year.