WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #RV Huntington women’s basketball team ran into a tough #25 Cumberlands squad Thursday evening, falling 79-59 on opening day of the Patriot Classic at the Rollins Center.

A year ago, the Foresters picked off the then-No. 7 Patriots, 90-84, in the Huntington Classic, but the rematch proved a different story. After a tightly contested opening quarter that featured Huntington’s lone lead of the night—a 13-12 edge after an Annaka Nelson triple with four minutes left—the hosts took control.

Cumberlands carried a 20-17 advantage into the first break before stringing together a 14-0 run to open the second frame and build a double-digit cushion of 34-17 with two minutes remaining in the period. Nelson single-handedly kept HU afloat with all seven of her team’s points in the quarter to make it a 36-24 ball game by halftime.

Huntington showed some life out of the locker room as four different Foresters put points on the board, with an Allison Price layup in transition trimming the deficit to 45-37 midway through the third. But the Patriots quickly countered with a 7-0 spurt to restore order and never looked back, pulling away over the final ten minutes for the 20-point victory.

Nelson paced HU with a career-high 18 points and five boards. Price and Liv Raby added 11 and 10 points, respectively, while Addie Shank anchored the paint with 13 rebounds. As a team, the Foresters shot 34.6 percent from the field and an uncharacteristic 25 percent from deep (6-for-24) while committing 19 turnovers to CU’s ten.

For Cumberlands, Joy Kendrick poured in a game-leading 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds. Zaram Fredricks added a career-best 16 points and eight boards, while Darcie Anderson chipped in 10 points for the Patriots, who finished with a 50-22 scoring edge in the paint.

With the loss, Huntington drops to 2-1 while Cumberlands improves to 2-0. The Foresters are back in action Friday at 1:00 p.m. to take on Lindsey Wilson in day two of the Patriot Classic.