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Foresters' season ends in OT at Crossroads League tourney

The season came to an end for the Huntington University men’s basketball team with a 109-100 loss in overtime to host Indiana Wesleyan University in the quarterfinals of the Crossroads League Tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

The Foresters, seeded seventh, gave the second-seeded Wildcats all they could handle from the opening whistle. Junior Mike Bush knocked down 12 points in the first half to help Huntington build a 49-40 lead by intermission. Coach Ty Platt’s squad remained on top, 61-51, a little over four minutes into the second stanza when Indiana Wesleyan swung the game’s momentum with a 10-0 run that knotted the contest at 61 by the 13:13 mark. Ben Carlson accounted for half of the Wildcats’ points during the scoring spree.

Indiana Wesleyan went on to lead by as many as seven points, 79-72, with 5:57 remaining, but Huntington didn’t let them get too far out of sight. The Foresters battled back and snatched away the lead, 86-83, with 2:10 to go after Bush and senior Daniel Woll each drained a pair of free throws. Lane Mahurin then came up big for the Wildcats, burying two baskets and a freebie to put his squad back in front, 88-86, with 57 seconds left. Huntington wasn’t done, though, as Bush scored in the paint with two seconds remaining to deadlock the game and force overtime.

Unfortunately for the Foresters, once the Wildcats went on a run to flip a 92-90 lead into a 100-90 cushion with 1:46 left in the bonus period, they were unable to recover.

Huntington finishes the season with 16 wins against 15 losses and a 7-11 mark in league play.

Bush and Woll both topped out at 21 points for the Foresters, who got double-digit scoring efforts from all five starters. Sophomore Mason Coverstone tallied 19 points while sophomore Tyler Arens netted 16 and freshman Konner Platt logged 11.

Bush helped facilitate the scoring with seven assists.

Arens led all players with nine rebounds, helping Huntington win the battle of the boards, 38-32.

Huntington went 38 of 73 from the field for 52.1 percent and 18 of 22 at the free-throw line for 81.8 percent.

Mahurin finished with 30 points for Indiana Wesleyan, 25-6, 14-4 in league play. Jacob Johnson tossed in 22 points, Carlson totaled 14 and Bob Peters notched 13.

The Wildcats converted 38 of 69 field goal attempts for 55.1 percent and 29 of 34 freebie attempts for 85.3 percent.