Goshen, IN — After one half of play against Taylor University-Fort Wayne Saturday afternoon, Goshen head coach Steve Wiktorowski did not appear pleased while trailing his team into the locker room at the Roman Gingerich Center.

Facing the Lady Falcons in the Leafs’ Mid-Central Conference bye weekend, Wiktorowski’s team had only managed a 35-35 tie at the intermission, despite leading by as many as seven points on three different occasions.

“We were not focused in our defensive play or in our offensive decision making in the first half,” Wiktorowski said.

It’s a good thing the team decided to have the season’s best statistic half of basketball in the latter 20 minutes.

Goshen (5-16, 1-6) used a dominating second-half performance to cruise by Taylor-Fort Wayne 75-54, outscoring the guests 40-19 in the second period while shooting a season-best 64 percent from the floor in the half (16 of 25). The Leafs’ defense was equally as impressive, holding the Lady Falcons to just 30 percent second-half shooting (nine for 30) in exploding to the 21-point win.

“We played two completely different halves today,” Wiktorowski said following the contest. “In the second half, we played much better team defense and took better care of the ball, which helped lead us to our best shooting half of the year. I felt that our guard play was especially good on both ends during the second half and our bench players kept us playing at a much more consistent level than in the first half.”

The team’s sizzling 64 percent mark was the best single-half shooting clip on the season for the young squad (previously it was a 52 percent clip in the first half against Bethel College on Jan. 4), while the Leafs’ overall shooting percentage of 56.4 percent (31 of 55) was also tops on the season. Despite shooting 50 percent in Saturday’s first half of play (15 of 30), Goshen could not hang on to an early lead thanks in large part to defensive lapses, allowing Taylor-Fort Wayne to hang on to a 35-35 tie at intermission.

It didn’t appear that a close game was imminent in the game’s early stages, as Goshen shot out to a 10-3 lead just four minutes into the contest. Taylor-Fort Wayne cut the lead to four points three times in the next two minutes of play, but a free throw by sophomore Carly Feldman and a layup by classmate Jess Buller recaptured a seven-point Leafs’ lead with 13 minutes remaining in the half.

Goshen led by seven (19-12) with 11:05 remaining in the first period, but a seven to two Lady Falcon run over the next four minutes cut the Leafs’ lead to just 21-19 with 7:19 remaining. From that point, Taylor-Fort Wayne stayed close thanks to Goshen missing eight of its last 12 shots from the field, coupled with four turnovers. The Lady Falcons grabbed a two-point lead twice in the half’s final three minutes, but a late layup by freshman Rachel Canen deadlocked the score at 35-35 with 45 seconds remaining.

The halftime score would be as close as Taylor-Fort Wayne would get the rest of the way.

Goshen opened the second stanza with a furious surge, outscoring the Lady Falcons 31 to seven in the first 12 minutes to grab a 24-point lead in what seemed like the blink of an eye. The Leafs held Taylor-Fort Wayne scoreless in two lengthy stretches — one drought lasted four minutes and another five minutes — in opening up an enormous lead. Wiktorowski’s team made nine straight field goals from the 11:52 mark to the 7:53 mark, turning a 50-42 lead into a 66-42 gorge in just four minutes. Taylor-Fort Wayne could not pull closer than 19 points the remainder of the way, and Goshen had secured its fourth straight win in the friendly confines of the Roman Gingerich Center.

Sophomore Kelsy McKee had a dynamite game from the floor, knocking in seven of eight field goal attempts — including four of five from long range — to post a game-high 18 points. Canen wasn’t far behind scoring 17 points (13 of which came in the second half), while freshman Kendra Fights tallied 10 points to go with a team-high five assists. Feldman finished with seven points and a team-high five rebounds, while sophomore Sarah Arnold scored six points to go with five steals.

“I thought that both McKee and Sarah Arnold played well the whole game, and Canen played well the second half,” Wiktorowski said. “Six three-pointers between McKee and Canen really helped to open up things on the inside. Fights played a nice all-around game, and I was especially pleased with her five assists and no turnovers. Carly Feldman was productive during the minutes she played, but was limited by foul trouble. (Junior) Danielle Haney (four points, three rebounds, three steals) also gave us some good minutes off the bench on both ends. This week we finish the first half of the conference schedule, and we hope this game can help lead us to be a more consistent team, especially offensively, the second half of the MCC schedule.”

Goshen will conclude first-round MCC action Wednesday night, when the team looks to push its home winning streak to five games against Grace College. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. in the Roman Gingerich Center.