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02.25.06
- Huntington University’s Kyle Ganton
scored a career-high 33 points to lead the Foresters (27-5) past the Cougars
of St. Francis (21-11) 88-75 in the semi-finals of the Mid-Central Conference
Tournament. Ganton scored seven of HU’s first 11 points and helped the
Foresters jump out to a 15-5 lead six minutes into the contest. St.
Francis then ran off six straight points to cut it to 15-11 at the
11:40 mark. The Foresters responded with a 14-5 run to take it
largest lead of the half at 29-16 with just over five minutes to go in
the half. The two teams traded runs to end the half with HU up
40-27. The
first ten minutes of the second period belonged to the Foresters who
expanded their 14-point halftime margin to 21 at 65-44 with 10:09 to
play. The Cougars made a couple runs to get back within single digits
and cut it to 75-67 on a jumper by Mike Steinau, but HU went 11-14
from the charity stripe over the final three minutes to earn a spot in
the title game on Tuesday.
Ganton finished the
game with 10 rebounds to go along with his 33 points to record his
fourth double-double of the season. Alex Kock and Jared Yoder joined
Ganton in double digits with 21 and 11 respectively. Steinau led four
Cougars in double figures with 22 points. Mike Campbell supplied 15
points and 19 boards. Zach Beiswanger finished with 12 and Trey Eaton
had 10. With both teams hitting eight 3-pointers and 27 total field
goals in the game, the Foresters, who have been in the top five in the
NAIA in free throw percentage most of the season, got it done from the
line hitting 26-33 free throws for 79% to 13-21 for 62% for St.
Francis.
The win sets up the
rubber match between the NAIA 2nd-ranked Foresters and the
8th-ranked Trojans of Taylor University, who knocked off
Indiana Wesleyan University 72-70 in today’s other semi-final game.
The two teams will meet at Huntington on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:00
p.m.
Box Score
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