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DEC.
4 — Poor Spell Dooms Leafs Against #10 Marian
Goshen
closes first half with drought; Knights take advantage
in 75-67 win |
Goshen, IN — Take away the final
eight and a half minutes of play in the first half of Saturday’s
Mid-Central Conference clash with the 10h-ranked Marian College Knights,
and the Goshen College men’s basketball team would have been okay.
But, what a poor stretch it was.
After leading 25-21 with 8:37 to play in the first half, Goshen
(9-4, 1-2) could only muster a one for 13 effort from the floor (7.6 percent)
for the remainder of the period, as Marian put on a 23 to six run to end
the half, and effectively, the game. The Knights’ 44-31 intermission
lead was Goshen’s largest halftime deficit of the season, and one
the team could not recover from.
“Looking back, I thought we played with intensity and intelligence
for about 30 minutes of the game,” said Stan Daugherty, Goshen head
coach. “Thirty minutes of good basketball is not enough to win games
in this league.”
Despite the deficit, the Leafs fought back. After Marian pushed
its lead to a game high 15 points at the 15:56 mark in the second
period (52-37), Goshen put together a nine to nothing run of
its own to pull
to a 52-46 deficit. It was the first of three occasions that
the Leafs would cut Marian’s lead to six points, but Goshen could
not get closer. A driving layup plus a foul gave the Knights
a 55-46 lead on its
next possession, and a pair of free throws gave Marian a 63-55
advantage after Goshen cut the lead to six points at the 8:19
mark. The Leafs best
chance to cut into Marian’s six-point advantage came at the 7:16
point, when the Knights were ahead by a 63-57 score. Goshen got
defensive stops on Marian’s following three possessions, but could
not convert on the offensive end.
“I thought we played well in stretches in the second half, and
we had a number of players step up to the challenge after a poor
finish to the first half,” Daugherty said. “But again, you
just can’t
have spurts like the one we had to end the first half and expect
to win in the MCC.”
Statistical numbers were noticeably better for Goshen in the
second half of play. After allowing Marian to shoot 17 for 29
from the floor in the first half (58.6 percent), the Leafs held the Knights
to
a 10 for 29 effort (34.5 percent) in the second. Additionally,
Goshen perked up on the offensive end, connecting on 12 of 30 shots in
the second half (40 percent) after making just 11 of 32 tries
(34.4 percent)
in the first half. Perhaps Goshen’s most telling stat came from
its individual lines, as the Leafs did not have a single player shoot
over 50 percent for the game — the first time this season such a
trend occurred.
“We talked about the flow of the game, and how as a player you
have to realize where you’re team is at within that flow,” Daugherty
said. “We took some quick shots during that bad stretch in the first
half, and we missed. We started to lose focus on the defensive
end, and Marian took it right to us. Hopefully we can learn from this
in a lot
of ways to make us a better team down the road.”
Junior Eric Walsh led Goshen in scoring, charting 21 points on
a six of 13 effort from the floor. Classmate Jordan Buller notched
16 on a seven for 15 effort, while junior Tyler Sheerer charted 11 points
on three of eight shooting. Sophomore Willie Frazier led Goshen
on the
glass with 10 rebounds, but could only come up with two points
on one of six shooting. The loss marked Goshen’s first of the season
at the Roman Gingerich Center, while the win was Marian’s first
in league play.
Goshen will next travel to Indiana Wesleyan University on Thursday
night, for its final pre-New Year’s MCC game. Event time is set
for 7 p.m. |
 Junior
Jordan Buller
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