(Box Score) Adrian, MI — For Goshen head coach Steve Wiktorowski, it was a matter of whether the glass was half empty or half full at Siena Heights University Thursday night.

On one hand, Goshen was outscored 37-17 in the first half, committed 15 turnovers and shot just 23.1 percent from the field.

On the other, the Leafs fought back extremely hard, actually pulled to within two points in the second half and outscored the hosts by a 37-34 during the latter 20 minutes.

Even with a 54-71 loss as the end result, Wiktorowski elected to stay ever the optimist.

“I thought it was very evident from the start that (Siena Heights) was a veteran squad starting all juniors and seniors and we were a very young team going on the road for the first time in a loud gym,” Wiktorowski said. “However, the girls did a great job of regrouping at halftime. We were much more competitive in the second period, and that was good to see given our situation at halftime.”

Goshen (2-1, 0-0) shot out to a quick 5-0 lead behind an opening three-ball and layup from freshman Kimmie Hummer, who eventually would score a career-high 24 points. Things went downhill after hanging on to a 7-6 lead at the 15:03 mark, however, as Siena Heights put on a 13 to two run over the game’s next five minutes of play. The Saints captured its largest lead of the half — a 37-15 advantage with 1:11 to play — until another bucket from Hummer closed to the halftime deficit.

“Their pressure defense really took us out of our offense early and that affected our tempo,” Wiktorowski said. “We got down by 22 and had a bunch of turnovers, with really not much chance to get back in it in the final minutes.”

Somehow, Wiktorowski’s squad remained resilient.

An opening second-half Siena Heights’ basket pushed the lead back to 22 points (39-17), but Goshen then began to click. An incredible 22 to nine Leafs’ run over the game’s next six minutes made the score 42-39, Siena Heights, and Goshen was right back in it. A pair of made free throws from junior Katie Sowers just one minute later made the score 43-41, and it looked as if Goshen would pull off an improbable comeback.

That all changed following another run from Siena Heights — this one a 10 to nothing spurt from the 10:48 point to the 6:46 mark — that all but thwarted the Leafs’ valiant efforts. Siena Heights pushed its lead back to 17 points on three occasions in the final four minutes of play, eventually winning by that margin.

Hummer led all scorers with her 24-point effort, coming off of an eight for 14 shooting performance from the field. She knocked in all three of her three-point attempts and made five of her seven free throws. Sophomore Troyanna Scott was the only other Leaf in double figures, scoring 10 points and grabbing a team-best nine rebounds in just 17 minutes of work. Freshman Ashley Hummer was next in line for the squad, scoring eight points.

“Both the Hummer twins were keys for us tonight because of their aggressive play on both ends,” Wiktorowski said. “Our press caused some turnovers the second half and we did a really good job of creating points off their turnovers while cutting down on our own mistakes. Troyanna Scott played very well inside and (sophomore) Kendra Fights. (Freshman) Kara Boester and Katie Sowers all had solid stretches of play. We fouled too much and did not shoot well overall from either the floor or the line. But I was very encouraged by the improvement of play from one half to the next by our young team, and this will hopefully be a stepping stone for the near future as we have a string of very talented opponents between now and Thanksgiving. We will have to lengthen our stretches of solid play in order to compete against those teams, starting with Aquinas on Saturday.”

Goshen will next hosts the Saints — ranked 14th in the NAIA Pre-Season Top 25 Poll — Saturday night at the Roman Gingerich Center. Game time is set for 7 p.m.