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JAN.
10 — Goshen Hands #8 Taylor First MCC Loss Of Year
Leafs
outscore Trojans 39-15 in second half for 63-51 victory |
Goshen, IN — Following a 95-98 loss
to third-ranked Huntington University Saturday afternoon, there was no
questioning the Goshen College men’s basketball team’s ability
to score points.
Tuesday night against eighth-ranked Taylor University, head coach
Stan Daugherty’s squad showed a different side.
It can be pretty good on defense, too.
Goshen held Taylor to just 15 second-half points Tuesday night,
turning a 24-36 halftime deficit into a 63-51 win in front of a raucous
Roman Gingerich Center crowd. After connecting on just nine of 27 first-half
field goals (33.3 percent), the Leafs scorched the nets in the second
period, making 15 of 23 attempts (65.2 percent) while holding Taylor to
just a seven for 22 second-half effort (31.8 percent). The loss was the
Trojans’ first defeat in Mid-Central Conference play on the season,
keeping Goshen (12-7, 5-2) tied for second place in the league heading
into a bye weekend.
“I was proud of how we responded after a tough loss on Saturday,” Daugherty
said following the game. “We seemed to pick up our defensive intensity
as the game went on, and as a result were able to withstand some
pretty poor stretches of offensive execution on our end. Overall, it was
one
of our better defensive performances of the season, and we’ve really
focused on getting better on that end of the floor over the past
few weeks.”
That improved defense was not evident early on in the contest,
as Taylor knocked in six of its first 11 shots from the field in shooting
out to a 14-6 lead eight minutes into the action. A nine to three Leafs’ run
over the game’s next two and a half minutes cut the Trojan lead
to just 17-15, but from there things began to go bad for Goshen on offense.
Daugherty’s team missed seven of its final 10 attempts from the
floor — including a pair of point blank layup attempts — giving
Taylor multiple opportunities to make a run. As would be expected out
of the nation’s eighth-ranked team, the Trojans responded with a
17 to four spurt, making the score 34-19 with just five minutes remaining
in the half. Goshen was only able to trim the lead to 12 points at the
break despite holding Taylor to just two points in the half’s final
five minutes, and an air of uncertainty grew in the Roman Gingerich Center
stands.
“We were much better defensively in the last 10 minutes of the
first half, but we really struggled making shots,” Daugherty said. “We
talked at halftime about focusing on playing basketball. It was
a hard fought, physical game and I think, at times, our focus in the first
half
was more on the physicality of play than it was on the game itself.
In the second half, we focused on playing basketball.”
That focus was evident almost immediately, as Daugherty’s team opened
the second stanza with an 11 to four run that cut Taylor’s lead
to 40-35 just four minutes into the period. The Trojans were able to up
their lead to six points on three different occasions over the next three
minutes, but the momentum was slowly turning in Goshen’s favor.
A made jumper by junior Matt Crawford ignited a 13 to nothing Leafs’ run
that consumed the next four minutes of action, as senior Eric Walsh began
to take over. Walsh scored nine of Goshen’s next 11 points, knocking
in a trio of jumpers and a three-ball that gave the Leafs a 52-45 lead
with 8:10 remaining. Following a Trojan layup at the 7:40 mark, it was
Walsh again, converting a strong power move inside while being fouled
in the act.
And though Walsh missed the and-one opportunity, the 56-49 Leafs’ lead
was as close as Taylor would get in the game’s final five minutes.
Following a defensive stop and a pair of Walsh free throws on Goshen’s
next possession, it appeared that the Leafs’ 58-49 lead would not
increase on the team’s next trip down the floor. With the shot clock
winding down, Goshen appeared flustered, frantically dribbling the arc
in search of an opening.
Junior Willie Frazier — playing in just his second game back following
arthroscopic surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right knee — turned
out to be Johnny-on-the-spot. Frazier drifted three feet behind the three-point
arc and found himself with the ball and the shot clock at one second,
forced to fire up a desperation three.
It hit nothing but net, giving Goshen a 61-49 lead with 3:49
to play.
Daugherty’s team eventually stretched the lead to 63-49 following
a driving layup by sophomore Brice Hartman, but a late Taylor layup cut
the score to the final 63-51 margin. Following a game where Goshen scored
the most single-half points in MCC play in program history (61 against
Huntington, click here for recap), the Leafs tattooed the program record
books again: Taylor’s 15 second-half points were the fewest allowed
by a Goshen team in recent MCC history.
“I thought we took smart, calculated risks on defense,” Daugherty
said. “Once we started knocking down some shots in the second half,
we got some momentum. Eric started to look for his jumper more,
and that got us going offensively. Taylor did a nice job taking away his
driving
opportunities, but Eric adjusted well and knocked down some perimeter
shots. He worked hard to improve that aspect of his game over
the summer, and it paid off for him tonight.”
Walsh finished with a game-high 25 points, 20 of which came in
the second half. Frazier, in just 20 minutes of action, scored nine points
to go with five rebounds. Crawford and Hartman added eight points apiece,
while senior Tyler Sheerer scored five to go with a team-high seven rebounds.
Perhaps not showing up on the stat sheet, the Leafs’ individual
and team defense were vital keys to the win. Goshen held recent
MCC Player of the Week Eric Ford to 19 points, though 15 of those
were scored
in the first half. All-MCC center Doug Bell added 15 points for
Taylor, but was held to just five second-half points.
“I thought that (junior) David Haire really worked hard on Ford
in the second half, and (freshman) Josh Martin gave us really
good minutes against Bell during our run,” Daugherty said. “Willie
Frazier and Matt Crawford also battled hard inside, but again it was a
game where
we were just solid from a team defensive aspect. I thought we
were patient on both ends of the court, and you have to be against a well-coached,
fundamentally sound team such as Taylor.”
Goshen finished the game shooting just three of 14 from three-point
land (21.4 percent), but was much more selective from behind the arc in
the second half, making two of six from deep in that period (33.3 percent).
Taylor, meanwhile, went zero for seven from three in the second half following
a four for eight performance (50 percent) in the first half. Both teams
corralled a total 26 rebounds, with Goshen securing six offensive boards
to Taylor’s four. Free throws were also a factor in the win, as
Daugherty’s team knocked in 12 of 16 charity tosses (75 percent)
compared to Taylor’s five of nine effort (55.6 percent).
Goshen receives its first-round conference bye on Saturday, as
all other league teams will be in head-to-head action. The Leafs
will use that date to play a rare out-of-conference opponent,
Indiana University-Northwest, at 3 p.m. in the Roman Gingerich
Center. That contest follows
a women’s
game against Taylor University-Fort Wayne at 12 p.m. Both games
will be broadcast on 91.1 FM, The Globe. |
  Senior
Eric Walsh
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