(Friday Box Score)(Saturday Box Score)
ANDERSON, Ind. — Coming into the weekend with a four-game winning streak, the Goshen College men’s basketball team looked to improve on its 7-1 record at the Anderson University Sam Pierce Classic.
Goshen was given the privilege of opening the classic and played the early game on Nov. 23 against a determined University of Cincinnati-Clermont team, while host Anderson University played Rockford College in the evening's second game.
Though Goshen came out on top, 78-62, the team got off to a slow start and UC Clermont proved to be tough to handle in the post-Thanksgiving Day match-up; the teams headed into the locker room tied at the half with 33 points.
However, the Leafs returned to the court with renewed intensity and posted 55 points in the second half, thanks in large part to a deep bench.
"I thought that our bench gave us a big spark in the second half, especially Scott Bruggeman, Sam Boldman, and Bryce Bow — all of whom were playing close to home and had big local followings," said Gary Chupp, Goshen head coach.
The second half also saw the Leafs lock down on defense, essentially suffocating the UC Clermont offense which shot 27.6% from the field for the half and ended the game shooting 33.8%. Goshen stayed fairly even in terms of field goal percentage, but the biggest difference was in free-throw shooting, which was 93.8% in the second half as opposed to 66.7% in the first.
Free throws aided the Leafs, who made 15 of 16 attempts. They built a lead that was up to 24 points during the second half. UC Clermont was able to get a few points back, but the Leafs never gave up the lead.
“It took us a while to bring the needed intensity versus UC Clermont; it was pretty obvious that our focus was still at the Thanksgiving dinner table. After a sluggish first half that left us with a halftime tie, our guys cranked up the defensive intensity and quickly built up a 24 point lead with about 10 minutes left in the game, and cruised to a 16-point victory," Coach Chupp said.
Errick McCollum continued his recent impressive scoring drive as he led all scorers with 21 points. For the team, Nate West and Brice Hartman were next in line with 13 and 10 points, respectively. West also added a team high eight rebounds to the mix.
In the second game, the following day, Goshen came out aggressively and looked intent on controlling the game from the outset. Playing Rockford College, which was coming off of a defeat at the hands of host Anderson University, the Leafs seized every opportunity to avoid another slow start.
"Saturday against Rockford we talked about taking care of business early and we were able to do that taking a 20-point lead early in the game," Coach Chupp said. "Our defensive pressure on the perimeter was outstanding, and we were able to score several fast break points by forcing turnovers."
Indeed, turnovers played a large part in the Leafs’ first half dominance as they were on the receiving end of 19, while also aided by a 52.8% to 45.8% advantage in made field goals. Brice Hartman was the top scorer of the half with 12 points, which helped give Goshen a 46-26 advantage going into the break.
Though down by 20 points, Rockford came out of the locker room determined to increase the pressure on Goshen in an effort to get back into the game. Rockford made good use of its scoring opportunities and ended up with a 24-20 point advantage to compliment its 50% overall field goal percentage for the second half.
These efforts helped Rockford reduce Goshen’s lead, but again, the bench contributed to keeping the lead intact and Rockford at bay. The Leafs' bench added 15 points in the second half for a game total of 28, and gained more praise from Coach Chupp.
"Like the previous night, we were able to play a lot of guys significant minutes and the bench play was very good," he said.
The Leafs closed the game out with a final score of 78-61, thanks in large part to an aggressive start and quality minutes from the bench, which would have been named the game’s top scorer if it were possible to name “the bench” as a single player.
Adding to the wins this weekend were a pair of individual honors: Errick McCollum and Brice Hartman were named members of the Sam Pierce Classic All-Tournament Team.
Goshen now heads into conference play with a 9-1 record and two more solid wins. The Leafs have roughly a week off before opening conference play with the Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats, who are ranked fifth in the NAIA.
"Now it's time to focus on MCC play with #5 Indiana Wesleyan coming in to open conference play on Saturday," Chupp said. "Having played nine games in three weeks, it was tough to get in quality practice time. With a full week to prepare for the IWU game, we can get back to focusing on our stuff early in the week and worry about IWU later in the week. We all feel good about what we have accomplished so far in the non-conference portion of our schedule, but realize that we need to play at a higher level in MCC play.”
Game time Saturday, Dec. 1 is set for 3 p.m. at Goshen College’s Roman Gingerich Center.
Click Here For Complete 2007-2008 Season
News |
  Sophomore Errick McCollum
|
| |
|
|
