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02.27.08
- Sophomore Luke Smith
knocked down a jumper with 0.9 left in the game to lift the 3rd-seeded
Huntington University Foresters (22-9) to a 71-69 win over 6th-seeded
Spring Arbor University (17-14) in the opening round of the
Mid-Central Conference tournament. With the win, the Foresters
advance to the semifinals and will go on the road to Winona Lake on
Saturday at 3:00 p.m. to face #2-seeded Grace College, an 83-68 winner
over Goshen College in another first round contest.
With the score knotted
at 69-69, the Cougars grabbed the rebound on a Tyler Shively miss with
37 seconds remaining. Following a Spring Arbor timeout, Shively
made up for the miss with a huge defensive play. Cougar guard Kevin Ludwig drove
the lane and his defender, Andrew Mock, tripped over a teammate and
fell down. Shively came to help and drew the charge on Ludwig with 7.4
seconds to play, giving the Foresters one final opportunity to end it
in regulation. Smith inbounded the ball to Mock and took
off up the floor. Smith got the ball back from Mock near mid-court
and drove hard toward the left baseline. He pulled up for a jumper
just outside the left block and got nothing but net on the eventual
game-winner. Spring Arbor was able to get off a three-point attempt
before the buzzer sounded, but it bounced off the side of the rim
giving the Foresters the hard-fought victory.
Huntington’s Kevin Kyle topped all scorers in the game with 24
points. Geoff Scheetz sparked the Foresters off the bench with 12
points on 4-6 shooting from behind the arc and Shively and Kellen
Zawadzki both finished with 10. Rob Boss paced the Cougars with 16
points and eight rebounds and Ludwig chipped in 15 points and four
assists.
After spotting Spring Arbor seven points to open the game, the
Foresters eventually settled down and climbed in front at 22-20 on a
long ball from Kyle Benge with 10:32 left in the half. It was a lead
they would not relinquish. By half-time, Huntington had turned the
tables on the Cougars taking a seven-point lead at 38-31 to the
break.
Spring Arbor pulled within three early in the second half, but the
Foresters seemed to have an answer each time the Cougars made a run.
Scheetz’s fourth trey of the game gave Huntington its largest lead of
the night at 63-53 with 7:17 to play, but the Foresters struggled down
the stretch scoring just one field goal and four free throws over the
final seven minutes of play. Spring Arbor’s Rob Boss put back his own
miss with a minute remaining to knot the score at 69, setting the
stage for Smith’s last second heroics.
Box Score |
