GOSHEN, Ind.- The Goshen College women's basketball team lost to #3 nationally ranked St. Francis University 60-40 Saturday in Goshen.
In the first half of Saturday’s game, Goshen showed that they could play with the best teams in the nation. The second half exposed Goshen’s season-long Achilles heel: a lack of consistency.
"This was a tale of two halves,” said head coach Steve Wiktorowski. “We came out and played pretty competitively the first half and went into halftime only down four points.”
Junior Krystal Duensing opened the scoring for Goshen in what would be a fiercely competitive first half with two three-pointers in the opening five minutes of play. The Leafs would take a 10-8 lead with 11:28 left on a lay-up by first-year Cassie Greives, and augment their advantage by two a minute later on a jumper by senior Katie Sowers.
After 12 first-half lead-changes, the Cougars went into intermission with a 25-21 advantage.
St. Francis exploded on a 15-4 run to earn some breathing room at the outset of the second period. They didn’t look back.
“I thought we struggled to focus the first eight minutes of the second half and really hurt ourselves with turnovers,” said Wiktorowski. “Our half-court defense was pretty solid overall today, but they simply got too many uncontested looks at the basket. We also struggled as a team from the free throw line and the three-point line.”
St. Francis scored 27 of their 60 points off of 32 Goshen turnovers in the game. The Leafs shot only 36.6 percent from the field, including 22.2 percent from long range and 6-16 from the charity stripe.
“We got some glimpses of being able to play against a very high caliber opponent. We just have to be able to focus for longer periods and not beat ourselves by allowing the opposition so many extra possessions and easy baskets off our passing."
Three Cougars scored in double-figures, and St. Francis guard Toni Burney registered six steals. For the Leafs, Greives scored 11 points and Duensing 9.
"Cassie Greives battled hard on both ends and gave us some inside presence against their inside players. Krystal Duensing gave us some outside shooting, which we have struggled with lately, by hitting a trio of three-pointers. Kendra Fights gave us some good play, especially in the first half. Leah Lehman also was a strong physical presence on both ends and did a good job of attacking the zone and their press. Hopefully, some of the positives from today can carry over and we can take another step forward.”
Click Here For Complete
2007-2008 Season News
|
Sophomore Ashley Hummer