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The Crossroads League put an exclamation point on its dominance in the inaugural Crossroads League/GPAC Challenge Saturday at Platt Arena. After #7 Grace cruised past Briar Cliff by 39 earlier in the day, the Huntington Foresters followed with an 86–77 comeback win over #19 Morningside, completing a weekend sweep for the Crossroads League at 4-0.

What looked like an uphill battle early became a signature victory for first-year head coach Jared Jauch and his squad. The Foresters (3-1) erased a 35–27 halftime deficit by exploding for 59 second-half points, outpacing the Mustangs with red-hot shooting and relentless energy down the stretch.

HU’s offense sputtered through the opening 13 minutes, managing just 13 points before the momentum shifted. Luke LaGrange drilled his first career three-pointer to ignite a 14–7 Forester run that ended with Taden Metzger’s half-court buzzer-beater to close the half, trimming the margin to eight and waking up the Platt Arena crowd.

The spark carried into the second half as Matthew Spears opened with a rare four-point play and Jackson Paul’s deep triple at the shot-clock buzzer made it a one-point game. Two minutes later, Keylane Lasisi put HU in front 39–38 for its first lead since his opening-game bucket. From there, the teams traded blows before Miles Good’s mid-range jumper gave the Foresters the lead for good with just under 17 minutes to play.

Morningside hung close until Landon Biegel buried a crucial three with 7:30 left to extend HU’s edge to 67–60. The Mustangs briefly trimmed it to four, but the Foresters slammed the door with a triple from Good down the stretch followed by a 5-for-6 effort from the free-throw line to seal the upset.

Paul led the charge with a career-best 22 points to go along with four assists and two steals. Lasisi and Spears each added 14 points. Good had a strong all-around performance with 13 points, five rebounds and two assists. Kaden Johnson also did a little bit of everything, posting 11 points, a game-best eight boards and four assists.

After connecting on only 32.4 percent of their field goals through the first 20 minutes, the Foresters sizzled the nets at a clip of 69.0 percent (20-for-29)  in the second half which included going 8-for-13 from downtown. As a team, HU finished 13-for-17 (76.5 percent) from the line and committed just seven turnovers.

The Mustangs (1-2) were led by Alex Wilcoxson’s 20 points, while Daniel Brocaille chipped in 18 and Kaden Van Regenmorte and Fitzy Grant added 14 and 12 points respectively.

With the win, Huntington improves to 3-1 and gives the Crossroads League a clean sweep in the Challenge. The Foresters return to action next weekend for the Ness Bros. Hall of Fame Classic, opening play Friday at 6:00 p.m. against Pikeville.