MEN’S BASKETBALL

The 19th-ranked Forester men’s basketball team came out of the gates full throttle in their season opener Saturday afternoon at Platt Arena to run away from East-West 130-72.

Sophomore Landon Biegel made sure of that. The 6-5 forward scorched the nets by going 7-for-9 from deep on the way to pouring in 23 first half points. Four other Foresters also connected from downtown in the opening 20 minutes for a 63-32 disparity by intermission.

Twelve of HU’s 24 field goals in the first period were long balls. When they weren’t knocking down a triple, they were chasing down their own misses to the tune of 11 offensive boards that they cashed in for 20 points not to mention committing just three turnovers in the half.

The second frame was more of the same except this time it was Cade Brenner lighting it up from the cheap seats. The NorthWood product went off for 17 second half points of which 15 were from beyond the arc. He finished with 25 for the game while Biegel topped all scorers with a career-best 28 points.

The pair had plenty of help from their teammates with Drew Goodline and Jackson Paul each adding 15 points while Romain Bruwier and Landen Jordan chipped in 14 and 12 points respectively. Kaden Johnson patrolled the glass for 11 boards which included corralling six of his team’s 21 offensive rebounds.

Twenty-eight of Huntington’s 47 field goals were assisted with Goodline dishing out eight. As a team, the Foresters finished 47-for-78 from the field for 60.3 percent. Alford’s crew was nearly as efficient from three-point land where they canned 23 of their 43 attempts for 53.5 percent.

Not only was Huntington one three-pointer away from tying the program record for triples in a game, they were a mere four points from tying the all-time record for points scored in a game, a record that’s held since 1985 when a Forester squad scored 134 points against Nazareth.

Jaha Johnson had 25 points to pace the Phantoms. He was the only East-West player to finish in double figures.

Next up for the Foresters is the Ness Bros. Hall of Fame Classic. HU will tip-off with IU Columbus on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and will follow that up with a 4:00 p.m. matchup against Milligan on Saturday.