MARION, Ind. -- Junior center Val Sohasky scored the first four points of the game as No. 5 Indiana Wesleyan University women’s basketball never trailed in a 66-50 victory over No. 22 Huntington (Ind.) on Wednesday evening in Luckey Arena.

“It was a real good defensive effort,” said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Steve Brooks. “We did a lot of things well tonight and kept them to 50 points.”

The 50 points is the second lowest output of the season for the Foresters and only the second time they have been held to under 59 points. HU was limited to 37.0-percent (17 of 46) shooting and 20.0-percent (2 of 10) from 3-point range.

Huntington (12-4, 4-1 CL) entered play today ranked 11th in NAIA Division II shooting 44.7-percent and was 12th in assist-turnover ratio at +1.06. HU earned just 6 assists tonight with 15 turnovers.

Indiana Wesleyan (14-3, 4-1 CL) dominated play on the boards as they doubled up Huntington, 36-18. Katrina Blackmon led all players with eight rebounds as the Wildcats had 12 offensive rebounds.

“We did a real nice job on the boards,” said Brooks. “It gave us extra possessions and that was important. In the second half that hurt them when we got to the offensive glass. That shortened the game and it gave us an opportunity to spread the score out a little bit.”

Indiana Wesleyan scored the first six points of the game and carried that into a 15-6 lead eight minutes in. Huntington scored 8 of the next 10 points to cut the deficit to 17-14. IWU responded with a 9-2 run for their first double digit lead and headed into intermission with a 29-20 cushion.

The Foresters scored 10 of the first 13 points in the second half to trim the lead to a single field goal at 32-30. Once again the Wildcats answered with seven straight points for the 41-32 advantage. The Wildcats never could bump their lead to more than 10 points until an Erika Isham bucket with 3:36 remained for the 58-46 advantage. The lead would grow to as many as 16 points twice, including the final score of 66-50.

“It is a good win,” stated Brooks. “I think we did some things that made it more difficult than it needed to be. We had 19 turnovers and just 9 assists and that is uncharacteristic of our program and not something we want to see. We didn’t make the best decisions tonight.”

Blackmon was fantastic for Indiana Wesleyan with team-highs of 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists. She finished 6-of-7 from the floor in 33 minutes.

“Katrina did a really good job,” added Brooks. “She competed again and if we can get her to play like that night in and night out and add some other kids to the mix it may take some of the pressure off our offense.”

Emma Stahl was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Taylor Goshert and Teneil Krebs each contributed nine points and Sohasky added eight.

The Wildcats shot 54.2-percent (26 of 48) from the field, including a blistering 60.0-percent (15 of 25) in the second half.

Indiana Wesleyan remains home for their next game which will be against Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio). That game will be contested at 1 p.m. in Luckey Arena on Saturday afternoon.