MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Forester men’s basketball team righted their wrong by handing Taylor a 74-65 loss Saturday afternoon at Odle Arena. The win avenges a 77-74 overtime loss to the Trojans (7-14, 3-7) back in November and evens up the regular season series with TU.

With this win and the second round of conference play underway as of this afternoon, HU improves to 15-7 overall, 4-6 in Crossroads League action which puts them seventh in the CL standings.

The guests got down to business right away to establish a permanent lead of 7-6 less than three minutes into the contest on one of Zach Goodline’s patented floaters in the lane.

The 6-1 junior guard made his presence known all over the court by posting 20 points, ten rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Caleb Middlesworth was also active all afternoon having poured in a team-best 21 points and collecting seven boards. The Oak Hill product hit all eight of his free throws to remain perfect on the season at 28-for-28 from the line.

Ben Humrichous and Hank Pulver chipped in ten points apiece while Lane Sparks, in his first collegiate start, added nine points and six boards. The five starters accounted for 70 of their team’s 74 points and finished with at least six rebounds each.

After shooting 50.0 percent from the floor, the Foresters took a 32-25 lead into the locker room.  The visitors opened the second half by scoring the first five points to up their advantage to 36-25 but the Trojans got right back in it.

Despite going 0-for-13 from deep in the first 20 minutes, Taylor stuck with it to knock down three threes within the first seven minutes of the second frame to pull within 45-42 by the 13-minute mark. HU answered by scoring on their next two possessions which included Humrichous’ second triple within a two-minute stretch to give Alford’s crew a little breath room at 50-42.

The Foresters had a hard time extending their advantage much beyond that until Middlesworth drained four straight freebies with five minutes remaining, compliments of back-to-back technicals by Taylor. It widened the gap to 63-50 which tied the game’s largest disparity up to that point.

After that, Huntington nursed the lead mainly by way of the free throw line to wrap up the nine-point victory and hand the Trojans their third straight loss.

While shooting did not come as easily for the Foresters in the second period as evidenced by going 11-for-35 for 31.4 percent, they made up for it by crashing the boards to the tune of nine offensive rebounds which converted into 16 points. For the game, HU finished with 16 offensive boards, seven above their season average, to outscore Taylor 20-4 in second chance points.

Taylor was paced by Jason Hubbard’s 29 points. Kaden Fuhrmann and Aaron Hahn also finished in double figures with 14 and ten points respectively.

“Road wins are never easy in this league, so today’s win was big for us,” said Coach Kory Alford. “I thought Zach and Caleb did a great job leading us offensively. We did a really good job rebounding, especially in the second half.

“I challenged the bench at halftime and I was pleased with how they responded.”

HU returns to Platt Arena on Tuesday to host Bethel at 7:00 p.m.