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JAN.
1 — Goshen Can't Hang With Grand Valley State
Leafs
open New Year with resolution for improvement following
big loss |
Allendale, MI — Goshen head coach
Stan Daugherty knew that the cards were stacked against his team facing
NCAA Division II powerhouse Grand Valley State on New Year’s Day,
he just didn’t know how many were in the deck.
It turned out to be all of them.
Coming off an 18-day hiatus over the holidays thanks to a late
change in the schedule, the Leafs could only muster a half-hearted performance
against the Lakers, dropping a 34-73 haymaker in easily the team’s
largest point-deficit loss of the season. Goshen (12-5, 2-2) had dropped
its other four losses by a total of 16 points before a New Year’s
Day performance that Daugherty said he’d like to soon forget.
“This was a tough game for us from the standpoint that we hadn’t
played in 18 days, and then we play one of the toughest teams
on our schedule who was coming off a tough loss two days earlier,” Daugherty
said. “I
expected us not to be as sharp as we were right before Christmas,
but I hoped we could overcome that within the course of this game. We
really
weren’t able to ever do that, and Grand Valley made us pay.”
The 9-2 Lakers — who dropped a heartbreaking 81-78 loss at the University
of Indianapolis on Thursday night — clearly looked like the sharper
team almost from the game’s outset. Goshen was able to hang with
Grand Valley State through the contest’s first five minutes, but
an 18 to zero Laker run turned an 8-6 lead into a 26-6 advantage
and the host team never looked back. Behind a season-low 27.1
percent effort from
the field (13 of 48), Goshen would only cut the Laker lead to
16 points in the first half before Grand Valley steadily pulled
away. The Leafs
connected on just two of 17 tries from the three-point arc (11.8
percent) and committed 23 turnovers in the program’s most lopsided
loss since a 54-98 defeat to Valparaiso University during the
2001-2002 season.
“I didn’t feel we were ever able to get untracked offensively,” Daugherty
said. “GVSU is an outstanding defensive team and we needed to be
sharp with our passing, shooting and decision making abilities.
Unfortunately, we never improved in any of these areas during the course
of the game
and we dug ourselves a deep hole. My only hope is that this game
got us ready for the Bethel game Tuesday night. By playing this game before
the
start of the second half of the season, it should get us back
into a playing mode and get us ready to go next week. You never like to
lose a game this
badly, but we had to get a game in before conference season started
up again.”
It might not have made a difference, but Goshen was scheduled
to have one game under its collective belt prior to the Grand Valley State
game — a Dec. 29 match up at the Roman Gingerich Center with Kalamazoo
College — but a late scheduling error on Kalamazoo’s end cancelled
that competition in October. Unable to find a team to play on that date
with such short notice, the Leafs were forced to open 2005 against Grand
Valley State, a team that traveled to Michigan State University on Nov.
10 and gave the then 10th-ranked Spartans all they could handle in a 62-77
loss.
Still, the Leafs had their bright spots on Saturday. Senior Paul
Kopanski led all scorers in the game, tallying 16 points on a six of 11
effort from the field that included a two for three performance from the
three-point line. He also notched four rebounds in 22 minutes of work.
Junior Jordan Buller scored eight points and dished out two assists in
the loss.
“I think we understood that in addition to playing a very, very
good team, we also didn’t play nearly as well as we can,” Daugherty
said. “That combination obviously results in a very one-sided outcome.
Now we have to learn from this experience and move on to several
tough conference teams in a row.”
Goshen will continue Mid-Central Conference play on Tuesday night,
when neighboring rival Bethel College will visit the Roman Gingerich Center
in what always proves to be a classic affair. Game time is set for 7 p.m. |
  Senior
Paul Kopanski
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