MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Forester men’s basketball team remained unblemished on the season Friday night by trumping IU Kokomo 83-79 on night one of the annual Ness Bros. Hall of Fame Classic. With this win, HU improves to 3-0 while the Cougars drop to 1-1.

“I was proud of our effort tonight,” said Coach Alford. “This was a hard fought win over a very good opponent. While it wasn’t our best shooting night, we still found a way to score by pounding it inside and taking care of the ball.

“We did a great job of attacking the rim against an extremely athletic and physical team.”

The Foresters, who averaged 13 threes on 45 percent shooting through their first two contests, went 7-for-26 from deep on this given night but made up for it in the paint where they scored 54 points.  Alford’s crew also compensated for their three-point shooting woes by committing just nine turnovers while cashing in on 12 IUK blunders for 16 points.

Caleb Middlesworth poured in a game-best 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting. He also posted four assists and just as many rebounds. Zach Goodline dropped in 20 points and claimed game-high rebounding honors with eight.

Hank Pulver tossed in 13 points while Peyton West did a little bit of everything for Alford’s squad by collecting 12 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals.

In addition to their offensive prowess, Pulver and West also garnered praise from their coach for their defensive effort. “Overall, I thought we were consistent defensively from start to finish. Hank and Peyton were fantastic. They both had tough challenges and rose to the occasion.”

Ben Humrichous’ five blocks were also key to HU’s success at the defensive end.

While the Foresters never trailed and faced just one deadlock at 2-2, the game came down to the wire. The hosts showed signs of pulling away on several occasions, including a 9-1 run at the end of the half that sent them into intermission with a 39-30 advantage, but could never quite shake the Cougars.

Middlesworth opened the second frame with a quick bucket down low for the game’s first double-digit disparity of 41-30. It was a little slowing-going for HU after that as IUK battled back to within three, 48-45, by the 13:29 mark before Mitchell Wilson came off the bench to get his team back on track with a barrage of threes.

The 5-10 freshman dropped in back-to-back triples and another less than two minutes later to balloon the Foresters’ lead back to double digits at 61-48 by the midway point of the frame. The Cougars, behind Billie Webster’s eight points, pieced together a drawn-out run that sliced the lead to a single point, 67-66, with just over four minutes remaining.

A quick timeout was just what Huntington needed as they came out of the huddle to score on their next four possessions which included a runner in the lane and long ball by Goodline. The lead stood at eight points, 76-68, and proved too much of a gap for the Cougars to recoup. West made sure of that by canning a pair of freebies with 11 ticks remaining to seal the win.

Webster topped IU Kokomo with 16 points. Trequan Spivey added 14 points while Desean Hampton posted ten points and eight boards.

HU is back at Platt Arena tomorrow to host IU Southeast at 3:00 p.m.