MEN’S BASKETBALL

Aside from scoring the first bucket of the game, the #25 Huntington men’s basketball team chased Bethel all afternoon before eventually succumbing to their hosts, 93-87, Saturday at the Wiekamp Center.

Wins never come easy in the Crossroads League, especially on the road, as the Foresters would be the first to attest. It’s Huntington’s second straight CL road loss as they drop to 12-5 overall which includes a 4-3 league record.

The Pilots (12-5, 4-3) are a perfect 6-0 this season when playing on their home turf and today’s victory moves them into a four-way tie for third in the conference standings along with HU, Marian and Taylor.

There was nothing glaring in the stats that separated the two teams except when it came to points from long range where the hosts outscored HU 33-18. The Pilots canned 11 threes with seven coming in the final 20 minutes.

In particular, Tanguy Touze put the hurt on Huntington in the second frame with his touch from downtown. The 6-5 sophomore dropped in four triples after intermission. Less than a 50 percent free throw shooter coming into the game, he also came up big from the line by going 3-for-4 down the stretch to help secure his team’s win. He scored all 18 of his team-leading points in the second half.

Chikara Tanaka also finished with 18 for Bethel. Other double-digit scorers for the Pilots included Brandon Hunt (16), Drew Lutz (14) and Nathan Aerts (13).

Zach Goodline topped all scorers with 26 points. Landen Jordan had a dominant performance with 23 points and a career-tying 15 rebounds for the game’s only double double. Lane Sparks added 17 points, all in the second half, while Ben Humrichous finished with 11 points and five assists for HU.

After gifting the Pilots an early 14-4 lead, the Foresters rattled off six straight points to close within four at 14-10 by the 14-minute mark. It was still a four-point difference three minutes later before the hosts slowly pulled away the rest of the period to take a 47-35 lead into the locker room.

HU came out of intermission as the aggressors by scoring the first nine points in a matter of two minutes for a 47-44 difference and what seemed the makings of a big energy shift but not so. The Pilots fired right back with a  10-2 run to quickly up their lead back to double digits at 57-46 with 16:23 to go.

Bethel took their largest lead of the day of 72-57 midway through the frame on a Touze three. HU slowly scratched and clawed their way back in it with a big push in the final two minutes where Goodline cashed in on an old fashioned three-point play and then knocked down a long three to dwindle the deficit down to 83-79 with 1:13 remaining.

Unfortunately, time was of the essence at that point forcing the Foresters to foul and so the march to the free line began. The Pilots kept a healthy distance by going 10-for-11 from the charity stripe in the final minute of play to wrap up the win.

Alford and crew return to the friendly confines of Platt Arena on Wednesday to host Spring Arbor at 7:00 p.m.