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HU women pull away from Taylor for regular season finale win

Huntington University’s Miranda Palmer fixes her eyes on the hoop as she takes off for a layup in the second half of the Foresters' game against visiting Taylor on Saturday, Feb. 21. Palmer scored 21 to lead HU to a 65-53 win.
Huntington University’s Miranda Palmer fixes her eyes on the hoop as she takes off for a layup in the second half of the Foresters' game against visiting Taylor on Saturday, Feb. 21. Palmer scored 21 to lead HU to a 65-53 win. Photo by Steve Clark.

After a tight first half, the Huntington University women’s basketball team pulled away from visiting Taylor midway through the second and went on to win, 65-53, on Saturday, Feb. 21.

Sophomore Miranda Palmer scored a game-high 21 points for the Foresters, who finish the regular season 20-8 overall and fourth in the Crossroads League with 11 wins against seven losses.

Coach Lori Culler’s squad clung to a one-point lead at halftime, 31-30, and was up 47-43 midway through the second stanza when senior guard Courtney Baker went to work and keyed a 16-6 run thata broke the game open.

The run started when Baker drained a three at 9:36 After a basket in the paint by junior Kelsey Hubble, Baker stole the ball from Taylor’s Cassidy Wyse and Palmer wound up with the Forester score in the painted area. Baker then assisted on back-to-back buckets by senior Amelia Echemann and set up a three-ball by Hubble, who capped the points binge after that with another basket down low, giving Huntington a 63-49 lead with 4:12 remaining that it wouldn’t relinquish.

Hubble finished with 16 points for the Foresters while Baker topped out at nine.

Huntington shot 51 percent from the field on a 26 of 51 effort and 88.9 percent at the free throw line on 8 of 9 marksmanship.

Jackie Osenbaugh paced the Trojans, 16-14, 9-9 in league play, with 10 points.

Taylor converted 22 of 53 field goal attempts for 41.5 percent and 8 of 12 freebie tries for 66.7 percent.

A balanced effort on the backboards, with junior Jaclene Bonnema pulling down nine rebounds and junior Amelia Recker and Baker totaling eight and seven, respectively, gave the Foresters a 32-28 advantage.