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Hot-shooting Wildcats hand Foresters 82-71 loss

The Huntington University men's basketball team ran into a hot-shooting host Indiana Wesleyan University team on Tuesday, Feb. 5, and came up an 82-71 loser.

The Wildcats clicked on 25 of 44 field goal tries for 56.8 percent for the evening while Coach Ty Platt's team hit only 26 of 62 field goal attempts for 41.9 percent. IWU added to that by hitting 27 of 32 free throw for 84.4 percent, while the Foresters went to the line only 16 times and hit 10 for 62.5 percent.

While both teams now have identical 20-5 records, IWU pulled ahead of the Foresters in the Crossroads League with a record of 10-3 to HU's 9-4.

Despite IWU having a good night from the field, HU was still within two points at 60-58 with just over eight minutes left in the game before the hosts were able to take advantage of both HU big men having fouled out minutes earlier.

HU's Shane Merryman led all scorers with 28 points on 11 of 17 shooting from the field. TJ Short added 12 points and Derek Hinen added 10.

RJ Mahurin led four Wildcats in double figures with 19 points. Lane Mahurin and Jordan Weidner each scored 17 and Nathan Bubash added 15 off the IWU bench.

IWU won the battle of the boards, 35-27. Merryman's seven caroms led the Foresters.

Hinen had a team-high nine assists. The Foresters had 17 as a team.

Merryman scored 16 of his points and Short had 10 in the first half as HU trailed by a bucket at 39-37 at halftime. Drew Benedicts's three-pointer at 8:05 made the score 60-58, but Lane Mahurin hit a pair of free throws and Zac Vandewater hit a trey to push the IWU lead back to five, and the closest HU came was four points after that.