| (Box Score) Winona Lake, IN — Tuesday night throughout central Indiana, a winter storm dumped nearly seven inches of snow on the ground, slowing down traffic considerably.
While the playing surface was clear at Grace College’s Lancer Gymnasium, it was the Goshen College men’s basketball team that looked to be in the midst of weather-related gridlock.
Goshen (11-16, 3-10) could never get completely untracked following the unusually long trip to Winona Lake, staying close but never getting on top of Grace in a 73-60 Mid-Central Conference loss. The Leafs made just 21 of 55 total shots from the floor (38.2 percent) and just five of 19 tries from deep (26.3 percent) in the defeat, yet somehow staying close to the Lancers throughout: Grace led by just three points at halftime while the game remained a two-possession difference until the final four minutes, where the Lancers finally began to pull away.
The loss was the third straight for Goshen, which now has just three regular-season MCC contests remaining.
“Tonight’s game was like a lot of our MCC games in that we have to play well for 40 minutes in order to have a great chance at winning,” said Stan Daugherty, Goshen head coach. “We had stretches where we played well and then stretches where we played poorly. Several of our guys have been sick and sometimes it’s difficult to focus each day and get better. That will be our challenge the last few weeks of the regular season.”
Daugherty’s team trailed at the intermission by a 32-35 count, putting together a late, 13 to seven run to erase a 28-19 deficit with 5:25 to play. Freshman Errick McCollum accounted for nine of the Leafs’ points during that stretch, scoring 14 first-half points on six of nine shooting from the floor.
“I was pretty pleased with the first half of play,” Daugherty said. “We competed well at times and we were only down three despite not shooting the ball particularly well. We defended fairly well and we battled on the boards even though we gave up some height at spots. In the second half, we rushed some possessions on offense and either turned the ball over or did not get a good shot. At times, I did not think that we moved the ball well or found the open man when we got double-teamed in the lane. We still played hard and ran the floor well, but our execution on offense was not good.”
That lack of execution led to just a nine of 26 second-half shooting performance for Goshen (34.6 percent), as the Leafs made just two of 11 from three-point land (18.2 percent) and eight of 12 from the free throw line (66.7 percent). A sturdy defensive effort kept things reasonably close — Grace shot just 11 of 26 from the floor (42.3 percent) and two for seven from deep (28.6 percent) in the half — as Goshen trailed by just a 55-61 difference with 4:40 to play. A big three pointer on the Lancers’ next possession rebuilt a 64-55 Grace advantage, however, and from that point on Goshen would get no closer than eight points. Grace knocked in four of its final five free throws for a total 14 for 17 second-half clip from the line (82.4 percent), eventually extending to its largest lead of the night at the contest’s end.
McCollum was again brilliant in the defeat, notching a game-high 27 points on 11 of 17 shooting from the field. He also grabbed a team-best six boards. Junior Brice Hartman scored 12 points on a three for 11 clip, while senior Matt Crawford added six points. No other Goshen player scored more than five points on the night.
“We need to continue to work day to day on the basic fundamentals and then apply them to each and every possession on both offense and defense,” Daugherty said. “We’re trying to focus on making the absolute most of every opportunity. We’re only guaranteed three more of them.”
Goshen will next take on Taylor University in Upland, Indiana on Saturday. Game time is set for 3 p.m. at Don J. Odle Arena.
| 
Freshman Errick McCollum