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FEB.
22 — Season Concludes In Loss To #2 Huntington
Foresters
come out on fire; Goshen drops contest to finish
tough season |
Huntington, IN — For a team in the midst
of a nine-game losing streak comprised primarily of last-second, heartbreaking
losses, the Goshen College men’s basketball team could find nothing
more in the tank Wednesday night, dropping its first round Mid-Central
Conference Tournament game against second-ranked Huntington University
by a 46-74 score. After a month that saw the Leafs lose a senior leader
due to injury and drop six of those nine games by an average of just 2.7
points, Wednesday night’s game in Huntington was just too big of
an obstacle to overcome.
Perhaps, more importantly, it ended the careers of seniors Jordan
Buller, Tyler Sheerer and Eric Walsh, the program’s all-time winningest
class and bridge between mediocrity and national competitiveness according
to Goshen head coach Stan Daugherty.
“Ending a season is always tough, especially when you lose a difficult
game or have a streak of tough losses like we did, but this year
is even tougher because of the seniors that we graduate,” Daugherty
said. “All
of these guys will be greatly missed. They had a tremendous understanding
of what it meant to be student-athletes. They had great personalities
and were always enjoyable to be with. It made coaching worthwhile
because we always knew that they were going to work with us to make our
basketball
program as good as it could be. I know that they will leave Goshen
College with great friends and memories that will last a lifetime. Selfishly,
I just wish we could have extended their basketball careers a
little bit
longer.”
That extension would have not applied to Sheerer, however, as
the 5-7 sparkplug guard suffered a career-ending injury to his right arm
on Jan. 21 in a game against the University of St. Francis (click here for article). Though averaging just 6.9 points per game this season, Goshen
finished 0-8 in games without Sheerer in the lineup, a palpable statistic
to how sorely Sheerer was missed.
“Coach said it best after our game Wednesday,” said Cory Furman,
Goshen head assistant coach. “It’s obvious just how important
Tyler was to us, judging by how we fared without him on the court.
To us as coaches, that is far more telling than any individual stat line
could ever be.”
With Buller and Walsh missing a classmate that had appeared in
every game since the trio arrived to Goshen in 2002, the Leafs’ recent
magic began to fade. Three two-point losses, a pair of three-point losses
and a four-point loss tattooed the last month of the team’s schedule
before Huntington finally wore down Goshen (13-17, 5-11) on Wednesday
night.
“When you’re a competitive team and you’re playing good
people at this level, it should come down to the last few plays almost
every
time,” Furman said. “For a multitude of reasons, we just struggled
in the last month finishing those situations off how we’d like to.”
There was no such drama Wednesday at Huntington, however, as
the host Foresters — seeded first in the MCC Tournament as conference
co-champions with Taylor University — used a blistering first half
to take Goshen out of its game plan. After a three pointer by junior David
Haire gave Goshen a 3-2 lead with 18:31 on the clock, Huntington ran off
a 29 to four run over the game’s next 10 minutes, opening up a 31-7
lead and essentially taking care of the contest’s decision in the
process.
“I thought we went into the game with a solid plan to make them
defend for longer periods of time and then try to defend them
as well as we could in their half court offense,” Daugherty said. “Our
first few possessions were very patient and we got decent shots,
but we only hit a couple of those. Meanwhile, Huntington was exceptional
on offense.
They moved the ball well and all of their starters shot the ball
well. When we got down after the first 15 minutes we had to try to run
the ball
more and make shots. That enabled Huntington to play their style
of game even more.”
After a three ball from Walsh cut the Foresters’ lead to 31-11 with
6:33 to play in the half, Huntington exploded with another run, scoring
15 of the game’s next 19 points to grab a 46-15 lead with just 11
seconds to play. A long trey at the buzzer from Buller made it 46-18 at
the half, and the Leafs knew it would take a miracle to come back.
And while there was no miracle to be had, Goshen did conclude
its season with a fight, keeping pace with the Foresters step for step
through the second half. After allowing Huntington to shoot 60.7 percent
from the field (17 of 28) and 61.5 percent from the three-point arc (eight
for 13) in the first half, Daugherty’s team tightened up to keep
the Foresters to just 35.5 percent shooting (11 for 31) in the game’s
latter 20 minutes. Both squads tallied 28 points in the second half.
“Although we dug a big hole, I thought it was important to play
hard and compete in the second half,” Daugherty said. “I was
pleased that we played them even in the second half and we were
able to get our freshmen some minutes in a tournament game. This was a
night that
I believe Huntington was just ready to play. They played like
a national championship contender and they had all of their players contribute
well.”
Buller led the Leafs’ efforts in his final collegiate contest, scoring
16 points on five of 16 shooting from the field. Walsh added 14 points
on four of 10 shooting, while no other player scored more than five points.
Sophomore Brice Hartman led the team with six rebounds, while junior Willie
Frazier grabbed five boards.
Following the game Daugherty was quick to talk about his senior
group — which included first-year walk-on guard Daniel Constantine — and
the change in attitude they brought to the program.
“You’re really talking about some kids that came here wanting
to do something that was never done before,” Daugherty said. “Aside
from winning the most games in school history, helping us finish
in the top half of our conference and gain national recognition,
these young
men have all excelled in the classroom. Eric has been such a
competitor all four years and he was competing down to the last
minute tonight. He
has brought so much to our program and has been an integral part
of us being competitive the last three years in the conference.
He has set a
high standard for our younger players in terms of off-season
workouts and strength conditioning. Tyler was obviously missed
greatly the last
month of the season. He showed the importance of a smart, ball-handling
guard who could shoot the three-point shot. Despite his injury,
he was still active in encouraging and helping his team until
the end of the
season. His positive attitude and work ethic is an inspiration
to all of us. Jordan has really worked hard to make himself an
all-conference type of guard. He had to take on almost all of
the ball handling
chores
after Tyler's injury and that was a big burden on him. He continued
to work with the coaches until the very end to make his game
as good as it
could be. He has been a vital part of our success the last few
years. Daniel has been a great addition to our team. As a walk
on, he didn't
get much playing time. Yet he continued to work hard every day
and be a great teammate throughout the season. I have said many
times that he
truly exemplified a servant leader in the way he helped our team.
“In all, this group of kids surpassed even my expectations,” he
continued. “We’ve
now got an important off-season ahead of us in terms of getting
our returning guys better and finishing our recruiting efforts. We need
some good young
players who want to continue to put their names down as the ‘firsts’ in
Goshen College men’s basketball history. We’re not satisfied,
and we’ve got more we want to achieve.”
Check back to this website for the most up-to-date team news,
including recruiting information and post-season banquet announcements.
To contact head coach Stan Daugherty, call him at (574) 535-7493 or click
here to send him an email. |
  Senior
Jordan Buller
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