WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The HU women’s basketball team played spoiler to Indiana Wesleyan’s senior day by handing #16 Wildcats a 69-61 loss Saturday afternoon at Luckey Arena. Culler’s crew beat IWU, also ranked 16th at the time, by eight points as well back on January 12.

The win is Huntington’s third straight as they improve to 17-10 overall, 10-6 in league play. With two games to go in the regular season, the Foresters are sitting fourth in the conference standings with the potential to move into third depending how things shake out.

It was a battle all afternoon as no more than three possessions separated the two teams until the final minute of play when HU enjoyed a brief ten-point advantage of 68-58 with 47 ticks remaining. While things remained close throughout, Huntington outscored their hosts in three of the four quarters with the fourth proving most critical.

After playing even through the first 20 minutes at 31-31, the third frame was both teams’ most efficient quarter offensively. The Foresters shot 64.3 percent for 22 points to IWU’s 57.1 percent for 21 points as just one point separated the two squads, 53-52, in favor of HU heading into the fourth where Huntington took over.

Sara Doi maneuvered her way through the lane for the quarter’s first bucket after which Brooke Saylor canned a pair of freebies to up Huntington’s lead to 57-52 less than 60 seconds in. Over the next five minutes, scoring didn’t necessarily come easy for either team as the scored stood at 60-58 until Sarah Fryman scored in transition at the 3:37 mark to spark a 6-0 run for a 66-58 advantage with 1:25 to go.

The critical piece to the 6-0 run started at the two-minute mark when Saylor and Hammel each tracked down an offensive rebound. Not only did it allow the Foresters to shave 90 seconds off the clock, but Hammel ended up scoring on the possession to give the Foresters eight points of breathing room.

It was clock management after that as Huntington went 3-for-4 from the charity stripe while only giving up three points in the final stretch to solidify the upset. HU outscored their hosts 16-9 in the fourth quarter.

Fryman was a picture of consistency all day for the Foresters by posting 26 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Maddie Richer added 13 points. After a relatively quiet first half, Saylor came to life in the second to finish with 12 points, 15 rebounds, four blocks and three assists. It marks the senior’s tenth double double of the year.

Hammel did a little bit of everything for Culler’s crew by registering ten points, a career-tying eight assists and eight rebounds. Between Hammel and Saylor, the pair collected nine of their team’s 13 offensive rebounds.

IWU entered the day ranked second in NAIA Division II in field goal percentage (.476) and 3-point field goal percentage (.379) but on this given day, the Foresters held them to 35.0 percent and 28.0 percent shooting respectively.

Katie Key led the Wildcats with 20 points and six assists. Nicole Ignasiak finished with 17 points and ten rebounds for the double double. Like Saylor, today marked her tenth double double of the year.

The Foresters hit the road again on Wednesday to face Grace at 7:00 p.m.