(Box
Score) Goshen, IN — Facing — without question — the toughest schedule in the country in a recent, two-week stretch, the Goshen College women’s basketball team came up with perhaps its finest first-half effort in recent memory Wednesday night against fourth-ranked University of St. Francis.
Unfortunately, an even better stretch of play from the visiting Lady Cougars thwarted what might have been.
Searching for its first win over a Top 25 team since the 2004-2005 season, the Leafs came up short in a 52-79 loss to USF at the Roman Gingerich Center, all despite a brilliant first-half performance. Goshen (5-20, 0-10) held a 27-26 lead over St. Francis with 4:52 remaining in the first half, and stayed close despite a six to one Lady Cougar run to close the period.
Trailing by just a 32-28 score at the intermission, Goshen looked to be playing its best basketball of the season against one of the best teams in the nation.
A St. Francis’ run in the early goings of the second half changed the landscape dramatically.
The Lady Cougars turned a 34-29 lead with 18:44 to play into a 59-36 advantage with 11:41 on the game clock, putting together the type of run championship teams are made of. Goshen would play nearly even for the remainder of the contest, but the damage had been done.
The Lady Cougars’ seven minutes of domination did not submerge Goshen head coach Steve Wiktorowski’s thoughts on his team’s play, however, as the Leafs’ recent schedule has been a whirlwind of “Who’s Who” in NAIA Division II collegiate basketball: Goshen squared off against top-rated Indiana Wesleyan University on Jan. 20, played the fourth-ranked Lady Cougars on Wednesday and has the nation’s third-ranked team — Bethel College — upcoming on Saturday.
“There’s no question this is a tough stretch of games for us, but this is the best conference in the nation at our level, so you expect that,” Wiktorowsk said. “We are clearly improving. I’m not sure tonight’s final score was very indicative of how we competed for 40 minutes. Rather, it was more indicative of a great stretch of basketball by them that occurred over a 10- to 15-minute stretch where they were extremely efficient on offense. It was also not very indicative of how much better we performed overall offensively against their size and zone defense from the first time we played them, as we created many more good shooting opportunities this time. We just didn’t put them in the second half.”
After suffering a 42-74 loss in Fort Wayne in the teams’ first meeting (click here for related article), Wiktorowski’s team looked anything but timid at the outset of Wednesday’s match up. Even an early 15-9 St. Francis lead did little to rattle Goshen, as the Leafs put together an 18 to nine run over a seven-minute stretch to capture a 27-24 advantage with 5:29 on the clock. And even though Goshen would miss its final four shots from the field and turn the ball over six times in the half’s final five and a half minutes, St. Francis could only muster a manageable, 32-28 lead at the intermission.
“We played one of our better first halves of the year against a quality opponent,” Wiktorowski said. “We didn’t finish the half as well as we would have liked, but we still were right there.”
As the teams took the court for the second half, it wouldn’t take St. Francis long to put together an impressive surge.
The Lady Cougars made 11 of 12 shots from the field in their aforementioned 25 to seven run, as Goshen struggled to a three of nine shooting performance during that same time frame, committing five turnovers as well.
With a 59-36 lead established, Goshen would play the Lady Cougars even until the very end: St. Francis closed the game with a six to two run, turning a 73-50 lead with 4:04 remaining into the final 79-52 score.
“Both teams had a little trouble getting going to start the second half, but then their offense really kicked in as they started to go inside,” Wiktorowski said. “Their posts hit a couple tough shots that broke our spirit a little. That gave their shooters some good outside looks and made it difficult for us with their size and shooting to stop them both inside and outside, plus keep them off the offensive glass. Their press took us somewhat out of our good, first-half tempo and we didn't shoot quite as well the second half even though I thought we did a pretty good job of getting the ball where we wanted to against their zone.”
Sophomore Krystal Duensing and freshman Kimmie Hummer were the leaders for Goshen offensively, each scoring 11 points. Freshman Chloe VanDenBrink added 10 points and a team-best seven rebounds, while senior Danielle Haney added nine points. Sophomore Troyanna Scott scored six points and grabbed seven boards.
“I thought that Krystal Duensing and Kimmie Hummer did a good job of handling their press and penetrating their defense to open things up for others or to score themselves,” Wiktorowski said. “We also did a good job of challenging them inside and getting to the free throw line. Danielle Haney is really gaining confidence in her outside shooting and is beginning to show some of the offense we thought she was capable of producing when we recruited her. Troyanna Scott was solid in her first start lately and was especially effective the first half. We again are playing freshmen and sophomores the majority of the time, and they are battling to play focused and consistent for 40 minutes against some of the top teams in the country. But overall we are improving and I believe we are closer to breaking through and putting some complete games together and competing for wins in this incredibly difficult Mid-Central Conference.”
That level of difficulty increases – in the opinion of the national raters, anyway — as Goshen will travel to currently ranked third Bethel College on Saturday. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
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Freshman Kimmie Hummer