WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #RV HU women’s basketball team picked up a key road win Saturday afternoon by outlasting Mount Vernon 76-70 to improve to 19-7 overall, 8-6 in league play. Today’s W wraps up the regular season sweep and extends HU’s streak to four over the Cougars.

After leading through the opening two minutes of the contest, the Foresters didn’t reclaim the advantage until Sarah Fryman connected on an old fashioned three-point play at the 8:45 mark of the fourth quarter to tip the scales in HU’s favor 57-56. Huntington never trailed again.

Things remained close over the next six minutes, but arguably the biggest possession of the afternoon, a Dazia Drake trifecta with the shot clock winding down, capped off a 7-0 Forester run that extended the lead to nine at 74-65 with 1:44 to go. Mount Vernon looked to Sage Brannon, a thorn in HU’s side all afternoon, who came through with her fifth trey of the day on the very next possession to keep MVNU in the thick of things.

While the Cougars would trim it to four, 74-70, by the 1:22 mark, HU locked down defensively to hold their hosts scoreless the rest of the way while Fryman added two freebies in the final seconds to secure the victory. Erica Zook and Sara Doi each came up with a huge steal in the final minute of play to deny the Cougars any sort of heroic comeback.

As has been the case all season, it was Huntington’s grit and poise that stood out. The Foresters were down by as many as 11 midway through the second quarter but found a way to trim it to 40-38 by halftime. Fryman tickled the twine three times in the latter part of the frame while Sam Hammel and Cindy In’t Groen each dropped in a three and scored in the paint to keep things close heading into the break.

Mount Vernon came out of intermission with a sense of urgency to grow their advantage to nine at 49-40 less than three minutes into the third and would go on to claim a ten-point spread of 54-44 late in the quarter. While most teams would get a little antsy at that point, not Culler’s crew.

Instead, the visitors ratcheted up the intensity at both ends of the floor to keep MVNU from scoring while rattling off ten straight points, eight of which came by way of the charity stripe, to deadlock things at 54-54. Drake was a perfect 4-for-4 from the line during the stretch.

While the Cougars still clung to a two-point lead heading into the fourth, the rest, as they say, was history. The Foresters went on to outscore the Cougars 22-14 in the final ten minutes to escape Ariel Arena with a come-from-behind win.

Fryman put up big numbers for the Foresters by posting 33 points and 12 rebounds for the double double. It’s the second straight game and sixth time this season the 5-9 senior has scored 30+ points. Hammel netted 15 points, collected six rebounds and nabbed four steals. Drake finished with seven points off the bench.

HU’s defense forced 22 MVNU turnovers, 16 of which were steals. In addition to Hammel’s four swipes, Zook, in just 14 minutes of action, posted three steals as did Doi. Fryman and Drake finished with two apiece.

Brannon paced the Cougars with a career-best 27 points. Taylor Gregory added 16 points and 14 rebounds for her 16th double double of the season.

Huntington returns to Platt Arena on Wednesday to square off with #21 Indiana Wesleyan at 7:00 p.m.