| (Box Score) Goshen, IN — After inclement weather postponed the Goshen College-Huntington University men’s basketball game 24 hours past its originally scheduled time, the Leafs and the Foresters were forced to meet on Valentine’s Day evening in the Roman Gingerich Center.
For Goshen, cupid was apparently working elsewhere.
Fighting against both the fifth-ranked Foresters and a dull environment for much of the evening, Goshen (12-17, 4-11) could never get things completely going in a 58-71 loss to Huntington. The defeat kept the Leafs from securing a berth in the upcoming Mid-Central Conference Tournament, while Huntington moved a step closer to capturing at least a share of the MCC regular-season crown with the win.
Much of the evening left Goshen head coach Stan Daugherty with a bitter taste in his mouth, as his team entered the game fresh off a triple-overtime win at Taylor University on Saturday (click here for related article).
“This was a game where I felt like we never got untracked in terms of energy and enthusiasm,” Daugherty said. “Maybe it was the postponement or the weather, but we just never got the excitement that you need to upset a great team like Huntington. I thought we tried to play hard and at times we played well, but we needed some great energy for 40 minutes to beat Huntington.”
With the Roman Gingerich Center a shell of its usual atmosphere — announced attendance was just 426 — Daugherty’s squad struggled to provide much energy of its own. An early 7-4 lead quickly dissipated to a 12-16 deficit, despite Huntington missing its first four shots of the game.
“We started the game really strong on the defensive end and held them scoreless for the their first four trips, but we only scored once ourselves,” Daugherty said. “If we could have started 7-0, or even 5-0, then we might get ourselves going a little bit.”
A pair of back-to-back buckets from senior Matt Crawford tied the game at 16-16 with 10:39 to play in the first half, while a pair of free throws from freshman Hugh Weiskittel made it a 22-22 contest with just 5:41 on the clock. A floating jumper from senior David Haire pulled Goshen to within four points (27-31) with 2:29 before the intermission, but it was at that point that Huntington began making more plays. A made layup and back-to-back offensive rebounds helped the Foresters to a 37-27 lead with just 24 seconds remaining, while a driving bucket from freshman Errick McCollum pulled Goshen to within a 29-37 score at the intermission.
“The end of the first half hurt us because we are in position to be even or only down two or three, and we end up going in at halftime down eight,” Daugherty said.
That spread proved to be the difference for much of the second period, as Goshen hung around throughout but could never make a serious push. Goshen trailed by nine points with 15:31 to play, by eight points at the 14:01 mark and by nine points again with 10:57 remaining, but could never string consecutive possessions together to get closer.
Perhaps the Leafs’ best second-half stretch came at the 5:50 mark, when McCollum drained a step-back three pointer to turn a 50-62 deficit into a 53-62 difference. After Huntington made a pair of free throws on its next possession, McCollum got to the line for Goshen, making one of two. After a needed defensive stop, Crawford buried a three-ball from the baseline, pulling his team to just a 57-64 difference with 3:24 to play.
Again needing a defensive stop, Goshen defended brilliantly until the end of the shot clock on the Foresters’ next possession.
It was then that Huntington freshman Luke Smith buried a three pointer as the shot clock expired.
Trailing once again by 10 points, Goshen would get no closer the rest of the way. Huntington made its final four free throws to eventually push to the final 13-point margin.
“In the second half we had stretches where we played well, but we never got a run to cut the lead to three or four points,” Daugherty said. “I thought one of the biggest possessions of the game was at the three-minute mark when we had cut the lead to seven and had a chance to continue our momentum. Huntington hits a three at the end of the shot clock. At that point, it just took away all of the momentum that I thought we had created in the least three or four minutes. Overall, I continued to see stretches where we played well, but not for sustained periods of time. We have showed that we can play with the best teams in our league. Now we have to develop the consistency to maintain the good stretches of basketball over 40 minutes.”
McCollum led the scoring pace for Goshen, notching 18 points on seven of 12 shooting. He also grabbed a team-best six rebounds. Junior Brice Hartman added 10 points and five boards, while Haire scored eight points on a three for five shooting performance. Crawfod and senior Willie Frazier each scored seven, with Frazier securing five rebounds as well.
Goshen did shoot 44.9 percent from the field on the game (22 of 49 overall), but did not help itself with a six of 12 free-throw shooting clip (50 percent), including a miserable three for eight performance in the second half (37.5 percent). Goshen entered the game as the 15th-best free throw shooting team in the nation at the NAIA Division II level, making 73.2 percent of its tries.
The Leafs close out its regular season at home on Saturday, as MCC foe Marian College will visit the Roman Gingerich Center at 3 p.m. Goshen will honor its three senior members prior to tip-off. Game time is slated to begin at 3 p.m.
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Freshman Hugh Weiskittel