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Foresters with 12 rebounds and 28 points (hitting 10 of 10 in the second half); Kyle Ganton had 14 points; Doug Sheckler had 11 points and 5 rebounds; Steve Snider had 10 points; and Chase Verba handed out 5 assists. That same day, Goshen upset Taylor, which put the Foresters right back into first place.
Bethel: The Pilots came to play for the final game of the regular season, but Huntington prevailed 80-77, wrapping up the MCC championship. Alex Kock and Kyle Ganton both scored 20 points, and Alex got 10 rebounds. Doug Sheckler had 12 points and 2 blocks; Chase Verba had 7 assists to go with 7 points.
MCC Conference Results
Huntington College won the MCC Conference title with
| a 12-4 record, the second time in three years the Foresters have done that, and in a very similar manner each time. In 2002-03, Huntington finished with an identical record to that of Taylor, but Huntington had won both head-to-head match ups giving the Foresters the top seed that year. Same result this year, and that gave HC home court advantage. |
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MCC Tournament Games
Bethel: As luck would have it, the first tournament game was a rematch of the previous game. Bethel, the #8 seed, returned to Huntington for the first round of
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MCC tournament action, and this time it was the Foresters’ upperclassmen that made all the difference in the game.
Steve Snider (photo at left) started it off by scoring the Foresters' first 10 points (and 14 of their first 16 points); and Chase Verba finished it off by shooting six straight free throws in the game's final minute to seal the deal. In between, Alex
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Kock had 19 points and 7 boards; Kyle Ganton had 15 points and 7 assists; Steve Snider had 10 rebounds, Chase Verba had 7 rebounds, while Doug Sheckler had 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals and 6 points.
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Grace: Second round action saw the Lancers return, but this time it was simply no contest. The Foresters played one of their best games of the season; they led 50-29 at the half, and blew out Grace 93-61.
Kyle Ganton led all scorers with 19; Doug Sheckler had another Grace Game with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals. Alex Kock had 15 points and 7 boards. James Haifley and Chase Verba led the team in rebounds with 8 each. The Foresters had 18 assists, just 7 turnovers, 6 blocks and 8 steals.
Taylor: The final MCC tournament game didn’t go as well. The Foresters scored 50 points in 20 minutes vs. Grace, but they couldn’t get much more than that in a full 40 minutes vs. Taylor. In a disappointing end to a very successful season, HC lost the final MCC game by 1 point in the closing seconds: 55-56.
The Foresters were up by 11 points with 7:34 to play, but went scoreless for more than 5 minutes as Taylor cut the lead to 5 points. Then the Trojans hit back-to- back three-pointers in the final 90 seconds to steal the win, the last shot going in with 4 seconds to play.
Alex Kock led the Foresters with 14 points and 13 rebounds; Steve Snider had 12 points; Doug Sheckler had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks; Kyle Ganton had 8 points and 2 steals; while Chase Verba had 7 points and 5 rebounds.
NAIA National Tournament
Huntington Returns; Five Times in the Last Six Years
NAIA Ratings and Results
The Foresters were rated from #3 to #9 all season in the NAIA, and that didn’t change despite the MCC tournament loss. Before the MCC tourney, HC was #7 and when the brackets came out they were #9.
Their first round NAIA opponent was Newman University (Wichita, KS, enrollment 2,419). The Jets were 21-9 on the season and #20 in the Final Rating. And, with 15 players and 11 seniors, the Jets were just too deep. Midway through the second half, Newman had a 25-5 run, and the Foresters could not recover.
Steve Snider led HC with 17 points and 7 rebounds; Chase Verba had 15 points and 11 boards; Alex Kock had 14 points and 12 rebounds; Kyle Ganton scored 11; and Doug Sheckler scored 10. Kyle Ganton and Chase Verba each had 3 assists; Chase had 2 steals. Adam Bontreger, Seth Lochmueller and Jared Yoder combined for 9 points. The Foresters finished 22-11. |
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