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Forester women stun top-seed IWU in Crossroads League tourney

Photo provided.
Amelia Recker.

The fourth-seeded Huntington University women’s basketball team stunned top-seeded Indiana Wesleyan University, 77-56, on Friday, Feb. 27, in the semifinals of the Crossroads League Tournament.

The big win sends the Foresters, 22-8, to the tournament’s championship game on Monday night, where they’ll face second-seeded Marian University at 7 p.m. in Indianapolis. The winner of Monday’s contest will be crowned the Crossroads League Tourney champions and receive the league’s second automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament.

Less than 30 seconds into the game, junior Amelia Recker slid up and under her defender to kiss a shot off the glass to give her team what proved to be a permanent lead. That two-point advantage would do nothing but grow over the next 39 minutes as the Foresters never trailed against the fifth-ranked team in the nation.

Fueled by a field goal percentage of 50 percent on 27 of 54 shooting, Huntington built its first double-digit lead, 24-14, by the 7:18 mark of the first half and never looked back. Recker scored 11 of her game-high 24 points in the first 20 minutes to send the Foresters into the break with a 37-26 advantage.

The Wildcats would chip the lead to seven, 37-30, within the first 60 seconds of the second half, but Recker and junior Kelsey Hubble ensured their team’s lead didn’t dip any lower. After a Recker jumper and two freebies, Hubble drained back-to-back triples to quickly pad the lead to 17 at 47-30.

Huntington had its way with Indiana Wesleyan after that. Two possessions later, Miranda Palmer spearheaded the next Huntington spurt when she sandwiched two Recker free throws with the Foresters’ third long ball of the stanza and a layup to extend the lead to 22 with just over 14 minutes remaining.

Thirteen points would be as close as the Wildcats would get the rest of the way as the Foresters never let IWU string together more than an 8-0 run.

In addition to Recker’s 24 points, Palmer and Hubble chipped in 20 and 17 points, respectively. The tandem accounted for eight of their team’s nine triples as Palmer dropped in three and Hubble drained five.

Point guard Courtney Baker logged a double-double of 14 rebounds and 10 assists to go along with three steals.

The Foresters worked diligently to find open teammates as 23 of their 27 field goals were assisted. Huntington also dominated the boards, 44-23, and got to the free-throw line 16 times, where they converted 14 of those attempts for 87.5 percent.

Erika Isham came off the bench to pace IWU, 27-5, with 15 points while Emma Stahl pitched in 12. Huntington limited the league’s player of the year, Katrina Blackmon, to just four points. They also held Carlee Cottrell to three points after the sharp shooter punished HU for 24 points the last time these two teams met.