MEN’S BASKETBALL

As is customary anytime these two neighborhood rivals meet up, Wednesday’s conference showdown inside the Manhattan Orthopaedic Capital Center came down to the wire with the 14th-ranked Forester men’s basketball team slipping past 6th-ranked Grace by two at 84-82.

Since Coach Kory Alford took over the program in 2020, the Foresters have gone 6-5 against the Lancers with three of those wins coming on GC’s home turf. Tonight’s victory stretches HU’s win streak to five and evens up the regular season matchup between these two squads.

Both teams boast a 20-5 overall record while Huntington’s league record sits at 10-5 for third in the CL standings while Grace is carrying a 12-3 conference record for the second spot.

While no more than six points ever separated the two clubs, Grace held the upper hand throughout the first half with an early 6-5 HU lead and two ties in the latter part of the frame the only exceptions. The Foresters coughed up the ball ten times in the opening 20 minutes, one more than their season average for an entire game, but made up for their uncharacteristic sloppiness by shooting lights out. Huntington went 16-for-23 for 69.6 percent to stay within three of their hosts, 41-38, heading into intermission.

Alford’s crew scored the first four points of the second half to climb on top 42-41 with less than a minute ticking off the clock. It was a sign of things to come as there were six more lead changes within the first five minutes of the second period and plenty more where that came from as neither team was willing to back down.

In the second half alone, the lead swapped back and forth 17 times which included HU monopolizing the lead for seven consecutive minutes starting at the 12:05 mark. Ian Scott’s layup with just under five minutes remaining finally turned the lead back over to the hosts at 72-71 and so began another game of cat and mouse.

Fast forward to the final minute of play. With Grace up 82-79, Drew Goodline calmly sank a pair of free throws to pull his team within one with 55 ticks remaining. He and his team went into lockdown mode defensively after that, holding the Lancers scoreless the rest of the way while making big plays down the stretch to close the deal on another upset.

Still down one with 24 seconds to go and the ball, the Foresters missed their first attempt but Maximus Gizzi came up with the offensive board for another chance at the win. This time they didn’t disappoint with Goodline dumping the ball downlow to Landen Jordan who laid it in for an 83-81 advantage with less than seven seconds on the clock.

At the other end of the floor Jordan came up with a huge block after which the Lancers turned the ball over giving them no option but to foul. Grace sent Jordan to the line where he made one of his two attempts with 0.1 seconds remaining which proved not enough time to get a desperation shot off.

Jordan was an efficient 9-for-11 from the floor and 2-for-4 from the charity stripe to finish with a team-best 20 points. Lane Sparks added 16 points, five rebounds and three steals. Gizzi tossed in 14 points and handed out four assists while Goodline dropped in 11 points to go along with four boards, four assists and two steals.

Ian Raasch went off for a game-best 28 points. Brett Sickafoose canned three triples on his way to 17 points while Scott netted 16 to round out Grace’s double digit scoring.

The Foresters have notched four wins against Top 20 teams this season. They return to the friendly confines of Platt Arena on Saturday to host Spring Arbor at 3:00 p.m.