MEN’S BASKETBALL

The #RV Forester men’s basketball team withstood a fast and furious late-game surge by #18 Bethel to hold on for an 83-81 win Wednesday night at Platt Arena. It marks HU’s first win over a Top 25 team this season.

The two teams have traded wins over the last few years with Huntington enjoying a slight 6-4 advantage. Since Coach Alford took over the program, the Foresters have gone 5-3 against BU.

After spotting their visitors the first four points, the Foresters scored the next nine with Lane Sparks accounting for all but two of his team’s points. Little did anyone suspect the hosts would never trail after that. Five minutes later, Sparks completed a rare four-point play for the game’s first double digit disparity of 22-11 by the 10:40 mark.

The rest of the period was evenly played with Huntington heading into the locker room with a 42-30 advantage. Landen Jordan opened up the second frame with one of his thunderous dunks that brought fans to their feet. His put down ignited a 9-0 start to the half with Sparks wrapping up the run with a dunk of his own for a seemingly comfortable 51-30 advantage.

The hosts showed no signs of slowing down, swelling their lead to 24 at 64-40 with just over 12 minutes remaining. But HU learned firsthand that no lead is too safe in the Crossroads League.

Less than four minutes after Huntington’s largest lead of the night, BU had trimmed it to seven. Drew Lutz, the league’s leading scorer, dropped ten points in 90 seconds to get his team rocking and then a trio of Bethel threes on consecutive possessions put the finishing touches on their 23-6 run for a 70-63 difference with eight minutes to go.

Huntington weathered the storm to hold off their guests, maintaining at least a two-possession cushion over the next four minutes before an old-fashioned three point play by Jameir Jefferson pulled the Pilots within one at 75-74.

Jackson Paul answered for Huntington on the next possession with a fall away jumper after backing his defender down the lane. Both teams got to the line after that with Bethel going 1-for-2 and Zach Goodline knocking down a pair to pad the lead to 79-75 with two minutes to go.

There was still plenty of game to be played as the Pilots scored on either side of a Goodline 15-footer for a two-point separation of 81-79 with 15 ticks remaining. It was Paul to the rescue again, this time calmly draining two freebies with ten seconds remaining to put the game too far out of reach as Bethel’s bucket at the buzzer proved meaningless.

Goodline finished with 26 points to top all scorers. He also handed out seven dimes and nabbed three steals. Sparks posted 25 points. Paul added 13 while Drew Goodline tossed in ten.

Hilliard came off the bench for Bethel to finish with 20 points. Lutz collected 17 while James Anderson and Jefferson tallied 14 points apiece.

With the win, HU (14-7, 7-4) moves into a tie for third in the CL standings with the Pilots (16-5, 7-4). Huntington makes the short trip to Saint Francis on Saturday for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off with the Cougars.