MEN’S BASKETBALL

Round two of the NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship saw the 11th-seeded Huntington Foresters suffer a heartbreaking 73-69 loss to 3rd-seeded Arizona Christian Saturday afternoon at the ACU Events Center. The loss brings an end to Alford and crew’s season and their battle for the red banner.

With a trip to the Sweet Sixteen in Kansas City on the line, this high-stakes game lived up to its hype. The separation between the two squads never exceeded two possessions. Fans in the small packed out arena saw nine ties and 13 lead changes.

Both teams were looking for any sort of advantage throughout the contest. HU controlled the glass, grabbing 13 offensive boards to outscore their hosts 14-7 on putbacks. They also tallied two more field goals but in the end the Firestorm had a few more things go there way.

Arizona Christian got to the line nine more times than Huntington did for a six-point advantage from the charity stripe. They also scored 24 points from deep to HU’s 18 and ended up shooting nearly ten percent better from the field.

The Foresters took a 39-35 lead into intermission. Neither team scored in the first two minutes of the second half, but ACU finally broke the drought with five unanswered points. While it remained close, as it turned out, the Firestorm enjoyed the lead more consistently than Huntington in the final 20 minutes.

HU’s last lead came on a Gage McGuire traditional three-point play with 4:44 to go that gave his team a 63-61 advantage. The Foresters held onto a slim 65-62 lead courtesy of Romain Bruwier’s layup with four minutes to go. It wasn’t until the 2:28 mark that Arizona Christian took over the lead for good.

With :30 seconds to go, the difference stood at 71-69 thanks to a pair of freebies by Jackson Paul. Huntington fouled right away and it paid off as the Firestorm went 1-for-2 from the line to give the guests a glimmer of hope. A three would tie it and HU had :24 ticks to work with.

Unfortunately HU came up empty on their possession which forced them to foul. ACU only connected on one of their two attempts again but this time the difference was four with five seconds remaining and proved a gap too big to recover from.

Paul led all scorers with 17 points. Landen Jordan added 15 points. Zach Goodline scored all 12 of his points in the first half. Drew Goodline and McGuire each corralled seven boards to share game-high rebounding honors.

The Foresters finish the year with an overall record of 22-10.