Albion, MI — Current status of Goshen College point guards: Freshman Krystal Duensing: Out for the season with a torn ACL, medical redshirt. Sophomore Sarah Arnold: Out indefinitely with a knee injury. Senior Jennifer Rupp: Out until further notice with ACL reconstruction rehab continuing.

On Saturday at Albion College, these absences were well noticed.

Goshen (1-7, 0-1) turned the ball over a season-high 34 times against the host Britons en route to a 47-80 loss, the team’s seventh consecutive defeat. As a result of the errors, Albion was able to attempt 28 more shots from the floor than the Leafs, making 29 of 72 attempts (40.3 percent) compared to Goshen’s 17 of 44 effort (38.6 percent). Albion was also far more effective from the three-point line, knocking in 13 of 31 from deep (41.9 percent), a lethal mark when paired with Goshen’s three of 15 performance (20 percent).

“The story of the game was simply wrapped up in our continuing struggle to handle the ball with all of our ballhandlers injured,” said Steve Wiktorowski, Goshen head coach. “We had 34 turnovers which led to (Albion) getting almost 30 more shot attempts and probably at least that many points off turnovers. That, combined with their shooting from three, made them a much more effective offensive team despite both teams having similar shooting percentages.”

Wiktorowski’s team was able to score the first points of the game, but an early lead was short-lived. Albion turned up the pressure on defense and eventually generated a 45-21 lead at the half, knocking in eight of its 13 treys in the game’s first 20 minutes. That advantage was never lessened in the second period, as Albion led by 30 points midway through the stanza en route to the 33-point win.

“We got off to a good start but the combination of their pressure defense, a loud atmosphere and our inexperience quickly took us out of the game,” Wiktorowski said. “We played better in the second half, but were never able to put together a serious run.”

Freshman Rachel Canen was the lead point getter for Goshen, notching 12 points on four of nine shooting from the field. Sophomore Kelsy McKee wasn’t far behind, scoring 11, while classmate Carly Feldman tallied 10 points and seven rebounds. Freshman Troyanna Scott grabbed a game-high eight boards to go with five points. Sophomore Jess Buller scored just a single point but dished out a career-high six assists. As a team, Goshen won the battle of the boards, outrebounding Albion by a 44 to 35 count.

“ We put together a better defensive effort today, but it was difficult for us to take away both their shooters behind the arc and their post game,” Wiktorowski said. “I was extremely happy with our rebounding effort after an extremely poor showing on the boards in our last game. Feldman and Scott continue to show glimpses of what they can do offensively from the block, combining on 6 of 10 shots from there. McKee had a good floor game, Canen showed improvement in her overall game and Buller worked very hard to handle the ballhandling duties against immense pressure defense.”

Goshen will not have long to wait in returning to the floor, as the squad will face off against Mid-Central Conference rival Spring Arbor University Tuesday night in the Roman Gingerich Center. Game time is set for 7 p.m.