HUNTINGTON, IN – Too big of a deficit, and not enough time left on the clock worked against the Cougars as Spring Arbor lost to the Huntington Foresters 79-66 on an extremely cold Tuesday night at Huntington University.
Midway through the first half, Spring Arbor had fallen behind by 15 points and by half time trailed by 20 points, 28-48 due in large part by Huntington's dominance of the boards by hauling in 23 first half rebound to Spring Arbor's 10.
As has been the case most of this year, the Cougars responded in the second half and after seven minutes of trading points to start the second stanza, Spring Arbor started their comeback effort in earnest with the score 39-60 and 13:15 left in the game.
Thomas Starks (2-pointer), Rob Hogans (3-pointer), and Collin Hewitt (2-pointer) each scored field goals, to cut the Forester lead down to 14 points (46-60) with 10 minutes left. But then the Foresters stopped Spring Arbor's momentum over the next six minutes and maintained a 14 point lead and with 4:21 left in the game, SAU trailed Huntington 54-70.
It was Tyler Hughes' turn to spark the Cougars has he scored, was fouled and converted the extra point, and then Caleb Hogans assisted his brother Rob with 3-pointer to cut the lead to 10 points (60-70) with 3:42 remaining.
The Foresters Shane Merryman hit a pair a free throws before Rob Hogans connected on another 3-pointer to get as close as Spring Arbor would get, nine points and a 72-63 Huntington lead and 3:08 left on the clock.
Huntington would control the rest of the time in the game and would run out the clock with the final score 79-66 in favor of the Foresters.
Rob Hogans paced the Cougars with 23 points and continues to lead the Crossroads League in scoring with just over 24 points per contest. Hogans hit five of six shots from outside the 3-point arc.
Collin Hewitt and Caleb Hogans each added nine points to the books and Xavier Prather and Thomas Starks each contributed eight points.
The loss drops Spring Arbor to 5-6 in the Crossroads and the #20 ranked Huntington is now 8-3 and will wait to see what St. Francis does tomorrow night at Taylor University to see if they can share top spot in the League standings. The Cougars will return home on Saturday for a 3:00 tilt with the 22nd ranked Bethel College. In the first meeting between Bethel and SAU, the Pilots got the upper hand in a 77-66 game on December 7.
