MEN’S BASKETBALL

Senior Day went as planned with the HU men’s basketball team picking up a 69-58 win over Taylor Wednesday night at Platt Arena. Tonight’s win is the Foresters’ third straight as they improve to 19-8 overall, 12-5 in league play.

Huntington is currently riding a four-game win streak over Taylor.

The Trojans (10-17, 5-12) are being chased by MVNU for the last spot in the conference tourney and their play reflected that urgency as they were the early aggressors. It seemed to catch HU off guard as they managed just two points through the first seven minutes for an 11-2 Taylor lead.

It took the hosts the next 14 minutes to finally draw things even at 26-26 as scoring didn’t come easy for either team. Cade Brenner’s three with :46 seconds left in the half and a pair of freebies by Zach Goodline with a few ticks remaining sandwiched a Taylor dunk to send HU into the locker room up 31-28.

Huntington scored the first seven points of the second frame for a 36-28 difference but then came a barrage of threes from Taylor within a 75-second span to toggle the lead back in their favor at 37-36.

After Jackson Paul’s triple stopped the bleeding, Lane Sparks reeled off HU’s next 12 points to recapture the lead for good at 51-42 by the 12-minute mark. It wasn’t until Drew Goodline’s three with just over three minutes remaining that Huntington’s advantage crept to double figures. At that point, the game came and went quietly with the Trojans conceding the loss.

Sparks led HU with 18 points. Paul finished with 17 points and a team-leading seven boards. Zach Goodline posted 13 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.

Caleb Hodgson paced Taylor with 20 points off the bench. Jackson Ullom and Julian Mitchell each tossed in ten.

With one regular season game remaining, the Foresters are assured a top four finish in the league standings. Alford’s crew heads to Goshen on Saturday for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off with the Maple Leafs.