WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #24 HU women’s basketball team got into the win column in conference play Saturday afternoon at Ariel Arena with a 62-55 win over Mount Vernon (7-3, 1-2). The Foresters are now 8-3 overall, 1-2 in CL action.

The visitors never trailed but the contest didn’t come without a few ups and downs for Coach Culler and crew. Behind Sarah Fryman’s six points, Huntington got off to a fast start by scoring the game’s first eight points. The Cougars finally got on the board midway through the quarter but Sam Hammel was busy at the other end floor knocking down a triple and scoring twice in the paint to extend HU’s advantage to 15-6 by the first break.

The Foresters continued to dominate by building their lead to what proved the largest gap of the day, 23-8, by the 5:03 mark of the second quarter. However, MVNU sent a message that no lead is safe by scoring seven unanswered points on the way to whittling the lead to just five at 26-21 by intermission.

An Elizabeth Fee bucket four minutes into the third cut HU’s lead to a single possession, 30-27, but Erin Mohr buckets on either side of a Maddie Richer jumper – all within a 60-second span – jumpstarted HU’s offense as they rattled off 18 points in the latter half of the quarter for a 46-32 cushion heading into the fourth.

Once again, Huntington learned the hard way that in the highly competitive Crossroads League, you can’t get too comfortable. Behind one of the league’s most prolific scorers in Taylor Gregory, the Cougars crept back in it with just four points separating the two teams, 55-51, with 45 ticks to go. It came down to free throws after that with HU connecting on seven of their ten attempts to seal the deal.

Gregory scored 11 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter. Fee came off the bench to finish with 14 points for Mount Vernon.

Fryman led HU with 19 points and eight rebounds. Hammel poured in 16 points to go along with six rebounds, five steals and two assists. Richer added nine points and two dimes.

Since MVNU joined the conference in 2011, Culler’s crew owns the series 10-5 but has always struggled on the road as today’s win even things up on the Cougars’ turf 4-4.

Huntington heads back to the friendly confines of Platt Arena for a three-game home stint starting with a Tuesday matchup against #10 Taylor at 7:00 p.m.