GOSHEN, Ind. — Kevin Phillips scored 20 points off the bench and added a team-high six rebounds off the bench Saturday afternoon, but the output proved insufficient as the Goshen College men's basketball team dropped its first game of the season 93-77 to St. Francis in Gunden Gymnasium.

Dominique Bolden added 14 points and four boards for Goshen (9-1, 2-1 Crossroads League), followed by 12 from Devin Heath-Granger, 11 from Trevor Commissaris and 10 for Austin Hayden. Both teams' leading scorers came off the bench: Bryce Lienhoop had 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting for 19th-ranked USF (7-3, 2-1).

"Today you saw a Fab Four-caliber team and a Fab-Four caliber coach facing a team and coach that are trying to get to that level," said Goshen coach Neal Young. "St. Francis was the best defensive team we have seen all year, the best offensive team we have seen all year, and the most complete team we have seen all year form a personnel standpoint. To put it simply, we are not on their level right now."

The Cougars shot 62.3 percent from the floor, draining 33 of 53 field-goal attempts. They made eight three-point shots on 15 tries (53.3 percent), leaving the Maple Leafs behind. Goshen finished with 44.8 percent and 47.1 percent marks in those two categories respectively."

"We certainly didn't play our best game tonight but I also I don't feel like we played badly," Young said. "We turned it over less than they did (15 giveaways to 12), had almost double their offensive boards (11-6), shot it very well from three, and had our two bigs score 31 points on 20 shots. Us losing was a function of us not being able to stop them 1 on 1 and them making the right play virtually every time we brought help. But that's what good, experienced teams do."

Austin Fox, Kegan Comer and Evan Henry combined for 48 points for USF. The Cougars led 40-38 at the half, ending an opening stanza in which neither team led by more than five points. Phillips scored the first four points of the second half, with Commissaris adding a bucket at the 18:22 mark to put his team up 44-40. But St. Francis scored 30 of the next 39 points to take a 70-53 advantage with 9:13 to play.

"The good news is that we get another crack at them later in the year and I fully expect to be a better team by that point," Young said. "I fully expect to go into their place (on Jan. 23) and battle them for a full 40 minutes, as opposed to about 25 minutes like we did tonight."

Lienhoop led all players with eight rebounds: Commissaris and Phillips paced the Maple Leafs with six caroms each. Commissaris swatted away two shots: Heath-Granger and Hayden each posted four assists.

"I'm glad that our next game is only a couple of days away and I'm glad that it's against a good team," Young said "The only way to get the nasty taste of losing out of your mouth is to go out and put together a good 40 minutes against quality opposition. We will have that opportunity on Tuesday and I am excited to see how my guys respond from our first setback of the season."

Goshen meets Concordia University on Tuesday in its last game before an eight-day hiatus for fall-semester final exams. The Cardinals will enter that game 5-4, with a win over no. 17 Northwestern Ohio on Nov. 21 highlighting the season to date. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Gunden Gymnasium.