But that’s when Bethel answered.

In a big way.

Bethel went on a 16 to nothing run over the game’s next three minutes to capture a 20-12 advantage, and — while Goshen (8-9, 1-3) would stay close throughout — kept the Leafs at bay for a 78-66 win.

After starting the game with smooth efficiency, Goshen missed four consecutive shots and turned the ball over four times during the Pilots’ 16 to nothing outburst. For Goshen head coach Stan Daugherty, it was a trend that his team could never fully reverse, as Bethel made far better use of Goshen’s errors than the Leafs’ made of the Pilots’ miscues. With a total 41 turnovers between the teams on the evening — Goshen had 21 and Bethel 20 — it was the Pilots that scored 27 points off Goshen mistakes. (The Leafs turned Bethel’s 20 errors into just 19 points).

“For a variety of reasons, we did not adjust well to their press during their 16-0 run,” Daugherty said. “We settled down and finished the half well, but we came away from the entire night feeling like we could have played much better. We never really got into a flow offensively, and that is something you must do when you’re playing a team as skilled and aggressive as Bethel is.”

Despite allowing Bethel to shoot at a 56.8 percent clip in the first half (21 of 37), Goshen stayed close. Bethel captured its largest lead of the first half with 9:25 to play (a 31-18 advantage) but back-to-back three pointers from sophomore Bryce Bow trimmed the lead to just seven points with 7:57 to play. A deep three-ball from senior David Haire answered a Pilots bucket on Goshen’s next trip, and with just under seven minutes to play it was a 33-27 Bethel lead.

Goshen cut the Pilots’ lead to 39-37 with 2:36 on the clock in the first half following a post bucket from senior Willie Frazier, and a basket from freshman Errick McCollum cut Bethel’s lead to 43-39 with just 11 seconds remaining in the period. A defensive breakdown in transition allowed the Pilots an easy basket just before the horn sounded, however, and Goshen trailed at the half by a 45-39 count.

It was more of the same in the final 20 minutes, as Daugherty’s team played well enough to stay close but not capture a lead. Goshen trailed by just four points with 16:14 to play, by five points with 13:15 to play and by seven points with 9:20 to play, but turnovers and a lack of rebounding foiled any Leafs’ chance. Goshen gave up 12 offensive rebounds to the Pilots in the second half en route to being out-boarded by a 46 to 28 count on the night — a stat that gave Bethel 13 second-chance points in the final 20 minutes.

“We missed some good shots in the second half, especially from three, and we did not control the boards as well as we need to in order to have a chance to win,” Daugherty said. “We played hard for the majority of the game, but we’ve got to play smarter.”

Goshen shot just eight of 29 from three-point range (27.6 percent), including a paltry two of 15 second-half effort (13.3 percent). The Leafs also did not make the Pilots pay for an aggressive defensive scheme, getting to the line just seven times to Bethel’s 18 trips.

McCollum led Goshen’s scoring efforts, charting 19 points on an eight of 17 shooting performance. Junior Brice Hartman scored 15 points and grabbed a team-best eight rebounds, while Frazier scored nine and added eight boards as well. Bow, playing in just his second game after suffering a hip flexor early in the season, scored six points and grabbed three rebounds in 11 minutes of work.

The tests do not get any easier for Goshen, as a red-hot Grace College team will visit the Roman Gingerich Center Saturday for another MCC tilt. Game time is set for 3 p.m.