MEN’S BASKETBALL

With just a week of regular season remaining, the Forester men’s basketball team played its best basketball of the year as evidenced by Saturday’s 83-79 road win over #9 Bethel at the Wiekamp Center. Not only does the W keep the HU’s hopes alive for postseason play, but it also snaps a three-game streak the Pilots (19-9, 7-9) held over Platt and crew.

Huntington has won four of their last five games to improve to 14-14 overall, 6-10 in league play.

The Foresters’ offensive efficiency was noteworthy. They sizzled the nets at a clip of 57.6 percent (34-for-59), second only to their first game of the season when they hit for 62.9 percent. Thirty-nine of HU’s points came from beyond the arc with Konner Platt and Caleb Middlesworth carrying the lion’s share of that load.

Platt finished with 26 points which included burying six of his nine threes. With today’s performance, the 6-2 senior moves into tenth on HU’s all-time scoring list with 1,824 career points. Platt also finished with six rebounds and five assists.

Middlesworth was just as dead eye from deep where he canned four of his five attempts on his way to netting 24 points in addition to posting four rebounds and just as many assists.

Peyton West and Klajd Kiri each tossed in ten points. West also chased down a game-best ten rebounds for the double double.

At the other end of the floor, Huntington also had one of their best outings of the season. The Foresters limited a Pilot squad that entered the contest averaging over 94 points per game to rank second nationally in scoring, to 79 points. It’s just the fourth time this year BU has scored less than 80 points. In addition to holding their hosts to 38.9 percent shooting, HU also swiped five steals behind three from West.

For both sets of fans, it was a day where they sat on the edge of their seats for the full 40 minutes. Less than five minutes into the game, the Foresters jumped out to an 18-10 lead which ended up being the largest gap of the day.

By the midway point, HU still clung to a three-point advantage of 28-25 but back-to-back treys by Gavin Rasler was the spark the Pilots needed to spend the final ten minutes of the frame chipping into the lead and eventually climbing on top 49-45 by intermission.

It was blow for blow after the break as the two squads handed the lead back and forth nine times and forced five ties before Kiri muscled his way down low to score the permanent go ahead bucket at the 8:07 mark. It was 68-67 at that point and while no more than four points separated the two teams after that, Huntington never surrendered their lead.

Platt drained a huge three with 1:04 remaining and the shot clock winding down to up his team’s lead to 81-77. The Pilots countered with a pair of freebies by TreVion Crews on their next possession to pull within two. Both teams traded empty possessions before Platt calmly sank two free tosses with five ticks remaining to put the game out of reach.

Crews collected 21 points to pace the Pilots. Keonte Jenkins and Rasler added 12 points apiece.

“This was a great road win for our guys,” said Coach Platt. “Our defensive effort and commitment to the game plan was exceptional.

“We had big games out of a lot of different people. I really like the fact that we are playing our best basketball at the end of the season. The win sets up a big week ahead for our team. I know we will give it all we have.”

Next up for Huntington is a critical home game with Taylor on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. The Foresters are currently sitting ninth in the CL standings, just one game out of a three-team log jam for sixth place. The Trojans are currently one of the three teams sitting in that tie at the No. 6 spot.