WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The HU women’s basketball team got back on track with a 67-61 win over IU East to wrap up the Huntington University Classic Saturday afternoon at Platt Arena. The win comes on the heels of a pair of losses as Maggard and crew improve to 3-4 on the year.

After swapping the lead a few things in the first quarter, the Foresters took over permanently at 13-12 on a stick back by Logan Rowles a minute into the second stanza. Rowles scored twice more over the next four minutes to spark a 15-2 run that saw the hosts jet in front 26-14 with five minutes left in the half.

Gabi Melby was also instrumental in the scoring frenzy having erupted for seven points. It seemed the perfect setup for a blowout, but the Red Wolves weren’t having it. The guests began methodically chipping away at their deficit to whittle it to four, 30-26, by halftime on a buzzer-beating three.

IUE nailed another three on their opening possession of the third to make it a one-point game, but Huntington’s response was swift. Five different Foresters stepped up to put points on the board to outscore the Red Wolves by nine over a five-minute spell for another 12-point advantage of 43-31.

Once again, IU East was not ready to call it quits as they closed it to four by the end of the quarter. The pattern continued with HU growing a bit of a cushion only to have their visitors trim it to four on seven different occasions throughout the fourth before six points finally separated the two teams by game’s end.

After dropping 18 last night, Alli Vaughn had another solid day by tossing in a team-leading 16 points on 8-for-10 shooting. She also posted five boards, three steals and two assists. Melby did most of her damaged in the first half where she scored 11 of her 14 points while Konnor Gambrell saved all of her scoring for the final 20 minutes. The 6-0 senior racked up 13 points which included going 5-for-6 from the charity stripe.

As a team, HU shot 45.0 percent from the floor (27-for-60) while limiting the Red Wolves to 39.6 percent shooting (21-for-53). The Foresters outscored IUE in second chance points, 14-9, and points off TOs, 26-14.

Kennedy Griffin topped all scorers with 20 points. Caitlin McEldowney and Addie Brown added 13 and ten points respectively for IU East. The loss leaves the Red Wolves (0-6) still looking for their first win.

Huntington has a week’s break before opening up league play with a home game against Goshen on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.