GOSHEN, Ind – The Bethel College Pilots handed Goshen College their second conference loss of the season on Wednesday, defeating the Maple Leafs by a final score of 66-54. This result puts Goshen squarely in the middle of the MCC conference standings as they now have a 2-2 record against conference opponents, and a 14-4 record overall.
The Pilots made their presence known as they jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead to open the first half, forcing a Maple Leaf timeout just two minutes into the game.
Following the timeout, Goshen had appeared to regroup and went on a 20-6 run over the next ten minutes to lead by as many as 8 points. Contributing to the run were key three pointers by Errick McCollum and Bryce Bow along with a solid team rebounding effort to corral a total of 24 rebounds during the half.
With just over five minutes remaining in the half and a score of 20-12, Bethel would make a run of their own. The Pilots outscored Goshen 12-9 in the final minutes and closed the gap to four points following a Pilot three pointer as time expired.
The score was now 29-25 in favor of Goshen going into halftime.
Coming out of the break, Goshen head coach Gary Chupp knew it would be hard to rebound after the way the first half ended, saying, “"I thought the deep 3 by Lantz at the end of the half was a huge basket - as poorly as we shot it in the first half, we easily could have gone into the break up 7."
With the momentum clearly swinging in their favor, the Pilots took advantage of the situation and began to chip away at Goshen’s lead. They would end up taking the lead for good on a three pointer by Ryne Lightfoot with just under 15 minutes to play.
From this point, Bethel built its lead to as many as 11 points as the Maple Leafs struggled to find its offensive rhythm, making only 31.3% of field goal attempts during the second half.
Coach Chupp added, "We certainly had our chances tonight, but it is tough beating a quality opponent like Bethel when you shoot the ball as poorly as we did. A huge factor tonight was our struggles at the line. We came in 4th in the country in free throw shooting, and only hit 8-20, including missing several front-ends."
Goshen was led by sophomore Nate West Jr. who scored 15 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Errick McCollum came in second with a total of 11 points while Brice Hartman finished with 10. On defense, Kyle Laker led the Maple Leafs in rebounds with 7. Caleb Kitchell also chipped in with 2 blocks.
The Maple Leafs will travel to Grace College on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m.
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  Sophomore Errick McCollum
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