Box Score
GOSHEN, Ind. – Hoping to move up the Mid-Central Conference standings in their final regular-season contest of the year, the Goshen College women's basketball team could not hold on to an early lead as they fell 65-62 to visiting Marian College Saturday afternoon.
Lone Maple Leaf senior Katie Sowers got her final home game off to a nice start hitting a basket just 14 seconds in. After field goals by Cassie Greives and Ashley Hummer, Goshen opened up a 6-0 lead.
After a Jessica Carr jumper brought Marian back within one, the Maple Leafs tightened up the defensive pressure. Goshen held the Knights scoreless for seven and a half minutes to build a ten-point lead. Marian missed twelve consecutive field goal attempts in the stretch.
Neither team shot particularly well in the opening half, but Marian's 28% field goal percentage allowed Goshen to take a 32-23 lead in to the locker rooms.
"I was very proud of our effort today in probably the biggest game of the year for us," said Head Coach Steve Wiktorowski. "Win and we finish 5th in the conference, lose and we finish 8th because of all the close records. We played well the first half, especially defensively on both the full and half court."
The Knights crawled back within four before using a 10-0 run led by Therea Fairbrother to take their first lead of the game with just under ten minutes to play. Fairbrother scored eight points in the stretch, including a pair of 3-pointers as Marian went up by six.
The Maple Leafs answered with a ten-point swing of their own taking a 58-54 lead with two and a half remaining in the game. Marian responded with a long ball from Jessica Carr and retook the lead after a pair of free throws.
After Greives tied the game, hitting 1-of-2 from the line, Fairbrother converted a Goshen turnover into a lay up which put Marian up 63-61 with forty seconds remaining. Marian hit the necessary free throws down the stretch and the Maple Leafs could not hit the 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
"We came out a little flat to start the second half and they quickly made a close game of it and remained that way until the final buzzer," explained Wiktorowski. "We clearly had our chances but just could not take advantage of our opportunities to win. Both teams battled and made big plays late, but they made one more than we did."
In her final regular-season game, Sowers registered a double-double, scoring 12 points off 8-of-11 shooting from the free throw line to go with 10 rebounds. Greives also went for the double, racking up 14 points and 14 rebounds, while Ashley Hummer tallied 11 points for Goshen.
"I was especially proud of the way Katie Sowers went out at home today with an outstanding all-around floor game," added Wiktorowski. "Our guards played strong defense today and caused some turnovers with the press, and our bench kept our level of play high when we substituted."
Fairbrother scored a game-high 20 points, including five 3-pointers, while Kristen Houck hit 7-of-10 for 17 points and 12 rebounds.
"This team has improved tremendously from a year ago and has been so much more competitive overall than we were before in this incredibly tough conference. We purposely play a tough schedule to help encourage such development. Now we must go play the top team in the conference for the third time, and hopefully we can carry over some of this late season development into that game and compete well with them too."
Goshen, seeded #8, will go to top-seed and NAIA #5 Bethel College for the opening round of the MCC Tournament. Game time is 7 p.m. Tuesday in Mishawaka.
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