WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The Huntington women’s basketball team collected their second straight conference win on the road by topping Spring Arbor 76-67 Wednesday night at the McDonald Athletic Center.

The Foresters took care of business right away by scoring the game’s first nine points to establish and never give up the lead. It was a 16-6 advantage after the first ten minutes. The guests extended their lead to 18 at 29-11 with just under four minutes left in the half on a Celeste Ryman trifecta. It proved the night’s largest disparity before the Cougars closed out the frame on an 11-2 run to head into the locker room down 31-22.

SAU’s leading scorer, Alana Nelson, scored on the opening possession of the second half to trim it to seven but Coach Maggard’s crew didn’t get rattled. Alli Vaughn and Konnor Gambrell responded immediately with back-to-back buckets in the paint and shortly after Emily Seboe drilled her third of four threes to drive the lead back to double digits at 38-24 by the 6:45 mark of the third.

It became an all-too-familiar occurrence as the rest of the third and into the fourth, both teams made mini runs to keep things interesting with the Cougars eventually cutting it to just two possessions at 59-53 with five minutes to go. Much to the dismay of the hosts, HU had the final say by reeling off nine straight points with Gabi Melby’s deep three from the top of the key arguably the biggest possession of the run.

It was a 15-point contest of 68-53 with two minutes to go and while the Foresters weren’t stellar at the line after that, they hit enough to keep Spring Arbor at bay.

Melby finished with a game-best 20 points which included four and-ones. Seboe tossed in 16 while Gambrell posted 14 points and ten rebounds for the double double. Maddy Robrock came off the bench to add seven points. Vaughn finished with six points, eight boards and four steals.

Alize Tripp poured in 19 points to top the Cougars. Nelson and Grace Shoobridge registered 15 and ten points respectively.

With this win, Huntington improves to 8-10 overall which includes a 3-5 CL record. Since 2006, the Foresters have dominated the series against SAU by racking up 35 wins to just three losses. HU, currently in a three-way tie with Spring Arbor and Taylor for sixth place in the league standings, returns to Platt Arena on Saturday to host #RV Grace at 1:00 p.m.