WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

It was Gabi Melby’s floater in the lane with 6.1 seconds remaining that lifted the HU women’s basketball team past Mount Vernon, 81-78, Saturday afternoon at Ariel Arena.

Since the Cougars joined the conference a decade ago, the Foresters claim a 16-9 record over the league’s newest member which includes a 7-7 record on the road.

Today’s win is Huntington’s first in Crossroads League action as they improve to 4-7 overall, 1-3 in CL play. With this loss, MVNU drops to 5-5 overall, 1-3 in the league.

While Melby notched the game-winner, several other Foresters came up big down the stretch as well. Ruby Bolon had a momentum-shifting three from the top of the key with three minutes remaining, Not only did her big bucket knot things up at 74s, more importantly it put an end to MVNU’s 8-0 run.

After several empty possessions by both teams, Alli Vaughn took the ball to the hole and got fouled for an and-one to give Huntington a three-point advantage of 77-74 with 1:28 to go. MVNU scored on either side of another trip to the line by Vaughn where she went 1-for-2. It made for the game’s ninth tie at 78-78 and set the stage for Melby’s heroics.

Melby finished with a game- and career-best 23 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Emily Seboe drained three from long range on her way to 14 points to go along with six boards. Vaughn was a rebound shy of a double double having posted 14 points and nine rebounds which included tracking down MVNU’s miss with 0.8 seconds remaining to secure the win.

In just nine minutes of PT, Konnor Gambrell poured in 11 points. Twice in the second half, the 6-0 senior sparked the Foresters by scoring on back-to-back possessions. Dazia Drake’s contributions were also noteworthy as evidenced by recording seven points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals.

With two brief eight-point leads by HU the only exceptions, it was a two-possession game throughout. The two squads swapped the lead nine times. The Foresters committed a season-low ten turnovers while forcing their hosts into twice as many for a 23-6 disparity on points scored off TOs. HU also pulled down 16 offensive boards to double up MVNU on O rebounds.

Peyton Davis paced the Cougars with 19 points. Angela Roshak added 18 points. After being held to just one points in the first 20 minutes, Maggie Coe finished with 12 while Madelyn Lawson came off the bench to toss in ten. The Foresters limited Rylee Pireu, MVNU’s leading scorer, to just seven points on the day.

HU takes a break from league play Wednesday to host IU Northwest at 7:00 p.m.