WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #RV Forester women’s basketball team held off a sharp-shooting Spring Arbor squad for a 74-67 win on opening day of league play. With this win, HU improves to 9-1 overall, 1-0 in CL action while SAU drops to 3-6 overall, 0-1 in the league.

While Culler and crew were well aware of the Cougars’ ability to hit long threes, they still couldn’t stop their visitors from dropping in four treys in the opening ten minutes. The result was an eight-point deficit of 20-12 with :27 ticks left in the quarter.

There was no panic in Huntington as Erica Zook found Alaina Rongos in the paint on an inbounds play to shave it to six by the first break. It was the start of a 13-0 run with Rongos scoring again down low and Sara Doi connecting from downtown after which Sam Hammel, Zook and Doi scored in the lane to put HU on top 25-20.

The Foresters would trail on three different occasions after that with the last, a 51-49 difference, at the 2:47 mark of the third quarter. Sarah Fryman canned a pair of freebies to draw things even and it spurred an 11-1 run that saw Fryman drain her fifth triple of the night at the buzzer for a 60-52 advantage heading into the fourth.

A pair of free throws by Dazia Drake opened the quarter and proved the game’s largest disparity at 62-52 but the pesky Cougars just wouldn’t relent. Instead they spent eight minutes scratching and clawing their way back in it to knot things up at 67-67 with 1:47 remaining.

It was a wake-up call for the hosts as they scored on their final four possessions while clamping down defensively to hold SAU scoreless the rest of the way to secure to the seven-point win.

Fryman couldn’t be contained as she missed just six shots on the night on the way to pouring in a career-best 35 points. Hammel was two assists away from a triple double by racking up 11 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. Alexandria Bope added nine points while Rongos sparked her team with six points off the bench.

For the third time this season, HU shot over fifty percent from the field by connecting on 28 of their 54 attempts for 51.9 percent which included going 6-for-11 from deep.

Anne Marie Wright and Gracie Cabana each knocked down five from long range on the way scoring 19 points to pace the Cougars. Grace Shoobridge and Teona Feldpausch also landed in double digits with 12 points apiece. As a team, Spring Arbor finished with a season-high 11 threes.

The Foresters are back at it on Wednesday to host Goshen at 7:00 p.m.