WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The Huntington women’s basketball team suffered their first loss on the road Tuesday night at the Johnson Center, a 75-58 decision, to Oakland City to drop to 1-2 on the season.

The four-hour bus ride didn’t seem to faze the Foresters as they jumped out to an 11-6 lead. Their advantage held until the final ten seconds of the quarter when the hosts scored in transition to knot things up at 14-14.

HU came out on blast to start the second with a 10-2 run that included back-to-back threes by Alli Vaughn and Laura Valiente-Marin to claim their largest lead of the evening at 24-16 by the 6:39 mark of the quarter. The Mighty Oaks responded by turning up the pressure defensively and it did the trick as scoring did not come easy for the guests after that.

It was an eight-point Oakland City lead of 38-29 by halftime. The Foresters got stuck on 29 until the midway point of the third which allowed OCU to build 54-29 advantage. Rather than lay down and die, HU rallied behind Gabi Melby who accounted for ten of HU’s next 18 points to trim the lead down to ten at 57-47 with just over nine minutes left in the contest.

The Foresters cut it to ten several more times but would get no closer before succumbing to the 15-point loss. The Oakland City win avenges their 16-point loss to Huntington last season.

Emily Seboe led a balanced Forester attack with 13 points. Vaughn tossed in ten. The pair each pulled down four boards to lead HU in rebounding. All of Vaughn’s rebounds came at the offensive end of the floor. Melby, in her Forester debut, finished with ten points, four assists and two rebounds in 18 minutes of action. Valiente-Marin added six points, dished out three assists, tracked down two offensive rebounds and swiped six steals.

HU attacked the offensive glass for 16 boards that they cashed in for 16 points. They also forced Oakland City into 26 turnovers to the tune of 25 points. The hosts got the best of points in the paint 42-20.

The Mighty Oaks were paced by Monesjia Harvey who poured in a game-best 17 points off the bench. Other double-digit scorers for OCU included Davinique Campbell with 16 and Emilee Hope with ten.

The Foresters return to Platt Arena on Saturday to host IU Kokomo at 7:00 p.m.