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02.06.08 - After being down by as many as 18 points in the second
half, the Foresters (18-8, 8-4) rallied for the 66-63 win over Taylor
University (18-8, 7-5).
Doug Sheckler scored the first points
of the game to give HU a 2-0 lead, but it was the last time the
Foresters would be in front until two and a half minutes remained in
the contest. HU keep things close through the first ten minutes
of play, but a 7-0 Trojan spurt gave Taylor a double-digit lead at
25-14 with 7:17 left in the half.
The Trojans
increased the margin to 14 on two occasions and headed to the locker
room up 39-27.
Taylor picked up
the offense where it had left it before the break and extended its
lead to 18 over the first four minutes of the second half. When
Sheckler hit a three to cut it to 50-35 at the 15:15 mark, it ignited
a 13-4 run to get the Foresters back within singles digits. The
Trojans momentarily stopped the bleeding with three consecutive
points, but then HU stepped up its defense. The Foresters forced
four turnovers on Taylor's next five possessions and capitalized on
them to knot the score at 57 with 5:24 to go.
The stalemate
continued for nearly three minutes until HU's Tyler Shively nailed a
three to give the Foresters a 60-57 lead with 2:31 left. Taylor
missed from deep on their next two possessions and was then forced to
foul four times to finally put the Foresters in the bonus.
Sheckler went to the line first and hit both to put HU up 62-57 with
33 seconds on the clock. Jacob Bream hit a three with 18 ticks
left and then the Trojans sent Shively to the line. He knocked
down both to extend the Foresters' lead back to 64-60. Following
a Taylor miss, Sheckler was again fouled. He drained both tosses
to put the game out of reach.
Sheckler, the NAIA
Division II National Player of the Week, took game-high honors with 29
points and 14 rebounds for HU. Kyle Benge and Shively joined him
in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. Bream
paced the Trojans with 25 points and Chad Reynolds added 20.
Box Score
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