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Best Season in 15 Years
There’s another college basketball team at Huntington University, and this year the Lady Foresters and Head Coach Lori Culler deserve some mention.
At the start of the season, Coach Culler was thinking this year’s team might be special. But she considered getting to the NAIA national tournament games by saying, "We’ve only been to the NAIA Tournament once and that was in 1993-94. I had five seniors at the time."
She won’t be able to use that line next year. They went to the NAIA Tournament (Sioux City, IA) this year after a successful season, with just one senior on the roster (Lauren Davenport) along with seven freshmen.
The Lady Foresters returned their three leading scorers from last season: Jenna Donaldson, Courtney Beerbower and Lauren Davenport. That leadership, along with some early seasoning of young players in tough non-conference games, proved to be a good combination.
The MCC coaches predicted a 4th place finish for the Lady Foresters but they came through with a 2nd place finish and topped that off by winning the MCC Tournament Championship. The latter earned them the conference berth at the NAIA National Tournament.
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Lauren Davenport |
Highly Regarded in the NAIA
The Lady Foresters also earned some national respect along the way. This season, they posted a 24-6 overall record, going 12-2 against non-conference opponents.
Huntington ran their record to 8-0 before losing a game. That included wins over #24 Aquinas (MI), NAIA D1 #18 Georgetown (KY), and #6 Cornerstone (MI). Before their unbeaten streak ended, Huntington climbed from #23 in the NAIA polls to #6 on December 1. They remained there in December, but then the MCC competition took its toll and they ended the season at #13.
Head Coach Lori Culler notched her 400th win February 21 at Marian. At the end of the season, four players earned All-MCC Awards: Lauren Davenport, All-MCC First Team; junior Courtney Beerbower All-MCC Second Team; junior Jenna Donaldson, Honorable Mention; and freshman Sarah Miller, All-MCC Newcomer Team.
The women defeated Jamestown (20-9) in the first NAIA Tournament game by the score of 64-54, before losing to #1 seed Davenport (MI) in the Sweet Sixteen game.
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Huntington Hall of Fame
Four more athletes were inducted into the Huntington University Hall of Fame this year. Two were recognized for their contribution to cross country and track: Starlet Yoder Myers (1991-95) and John Ngure Ngigi (1999-03). Two others were recognized for their role in basketball: Paul Buzzard (1948-52) and David Porter (1998-02).
Paul Buzzard: 1948-1952
Buzzard was a multi-sport athlete, earning a combined 11 varsity letters in basketball, baseball and football.
It's been awhile since Huntington fielded a football team; the third (and most recent) attempt was in 1948-49, but it only lasted three years. It appears that when Paul Buzzard left, so did the program.
Buzzard was a quarterback and a defensive halfback in football and a first baseman in baseball (invited to a Detroit Tigers team tryout).
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In basketball, Buzzard scored in double digits as a junior and then led the team in scoring as a senior with 14.4 points per game. He was team captain his senior year.
David Porter: 1998-2002
David Porter made his mark not only at Huntington, but in the MCC and NAIA, as well. Porter was the first Forester to earn back-to-back MCC Player of the Year awards; he did so in both 2001 and 2002. In addition, he was named NAIA First-Team All-American both years.
Porter helped lead Huntington to two NAIA Tournaments; once in 2000 and again in 2002. As a senior, his team scored 3,158 points, wich is the standing record for any season of Huntington basketball.
At the close of his career, Porter became just the fourth player in Huntington history to score over 2,000 points. He ranks third on the all-time Forester scoring list with 2,338 points in 143 games.
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In both his junior and senior years, Porter led HU in scoring and rebounding. He averaged over 20 points and more than 8 rebounds a game over both seasons.
With a career total of 1,051 rebounds, Porter is one of just two players in HU history to score over 2,000 points and pull down more than 1,000 rebounds. The only other to do so is retired Huntington Coach Steve Platt.
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