Box Score GOSHEN, Ind. — Liz Tecca became the 13th Goshen College women's basketball player to score 1,000 career points Tuesday night in Goshen's 74-54 win over Aquinas at Gunden Gymnasium.
Tecca, a senior who hails from Parchment, Mich., reached the plateau with 2:51 left in the second quarter when she sank a free throw for her sixth point of the game. She finished with nine points. Tecca would need 1,090 points (87 more) to reach the top 10 in school history: the career record is 1,776 by 2005 alumna Erin McDugle.
Tyra Carver of Goshen led all scorers with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Lynnia Noel added 12 for Goshen (2-0), which jumped out to an 11-1 lead and never trailed. Noel finished with six assists to lead all players.
"I thought we came out of the gate fired up and ready to take control of the game," said Goshen head coach Stephanie Miller. "They really struggled with our guard pressure and we cashed in on that. "I thought we eased up too quickly and didn't sustain our level of intensity as well as I would like to see, but we are a work in progress and are still trying to work out a few of the kinks and find ourselves."
Goshen's season-opening win was the first since an 87-54 dispatching of Purdue-Calumet in 2008, snapping a six-game losing streak in lid-lifters.
"It feels good to get off to a winning start and begin our first winning streak of the year," Miller said. Though we need to clean up a lot of what we are doing, I like the effort, maturity, and depth we are displaying early on. Many of our players made meaningful contributions tonight: Tyra Carver has been very explosive and fun to watch early on, Sophia Sears set the table well for others and did a stellar job on the glass from the guard position, and Lynnia Noel was a true spark for us tonight putting pressure on their defense with her slashing ability. I also really liked the energy and spark that Kelsey Fraley brought tonight. Her stats may not look like much, but her effort was a big intangible that got us going when we needed a lift."
The Maple Leaf defense forced Aquinas (0-3) into 21 turnovers and held the Saints to 36 percent shooting from the floor. Hannah Brefeld paced Aquinas with 12 points.
The Maple Leafs return to the floor for an exhibition at Division I IPFW tomorrow night at 7 p.m. and play their next regular season game on Friday when they host Trinity Christian for a 4 p.m. tip. Both games will air on 91.1 the Globe.
