MEN’S BASKETBALL

The #5 Cougars of Spring Arbor (21-3, 11-1) stretched their win streak to seven with a 69-58 W over the Huntington men’s basketball team Saturday afternoon at the McDonald Athletic Center. Their streak started earlier this month when they snuck past HU 61-57 the first time these two squads met.

SAU has made their living on defense this season and the Foresters felt that pain firsthand, especially in the opening 20 minutes where they managed just 21 points to dig themselves in a 15-point hole, 36-21, by the midway point. The Cougars’ defense in the paint was ruthless as evidenced by giving up just six points down low in the first half.

Spring Arbor held on to a double-digit lead for the first ten minutes of the second half until Andrew Yoder’s triple at the 9:16 mark finally reduced the advantage to eight points at 52-44. Six unanswered points by the Cougars put distance between the two squads but twice more over a four-minute span, HU trimmed it back to under ten with the last coming with 3:44 to go when Zac Owens scored two of his eight points.

Unfortunately, the Foresters wouldn’t score again until 33 ticks remained which gave plenty of time for the hosts to rattle off eight straight points for a lead that wouldn’t be disrupted despite HU scoring the game’s last five points.

While The Cougars boast a stingy defense, the Foresters dished it right back to limit the league leader to 69 points, 13 points below their season average. HU forced ten SAU miscues while limiting their TOs to just five. They also outrebounded their hosts on the offensive glass 11-9 and scored 13 points from the line to SAU’s eight.

Two Foresters finished in double figures. Konner Platt tossed in 13 points to go along with five rebounds. Tyler Arens posted 11 points and a team-best six boards.

Payton DeWildt came off the bench for SAU to share game-high scoring honors of 15 points with Luke Barber. Paul Marandet added 12 points and enjoyed game-high honors in rebounding with seven and assists with eight.

The Foresters (14-10, 4-8) are back at it on Tuesday when they travel to Taylor for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off with the Trojans.