By Andrew Snyder
Sports Information Intern

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Senior Sophia Sears tallied 25 points, two short of her career high, for the Goshen College women's basketball team, but it was host Aquinas College who came away with the 78-67 win in non-conference play Tuesday evening.

Aquinas (2-1) used an up-tempo transition offense against the 11th-ranked Maple Leafs, jumping out to a 19-16 lead heading into the first break. Sears paced Goshen with five points in the first stanza while McKenzie Breimayer led the Saints with six.

The Maple Leafs (1-1) picked up the intensity in the second quarter, using variations of full-court pressure to disrupt the Aquinas offense and outscore the Saints 22-17 to take a 38-36 lead into halftime. In the first 20 minutes, Sears led Goshen with 11 points, followed by eight from junior transfer Caitlyn O'Neal.

"Aquinas played high-effort basketball tonight and didn't allow us to get comfortable offensively," Goshen coach Stephanie Miller said. "They came in with an agenda to be physical with us and own the glass, and they beat us at our own game tonight. We have a lot of work to do and tonight we were exposed. We need time and experience to figure out roles and find our identity."

The Saints got the Maple Leafs in foul trouble early in the third and used a 9-of-14 mark from the free throw line to finish the third down only one, 55-54.

Shooting woes plagued the Maple Leafs down the stretch. Sears had three of the team's six field goals in the final 10 minutes, and the team went 0-of-4 from the charity stripe after going 4-of-4 through the first 30 minutes. Aquinas would double the Maple Leafs 24-12 in the fourth period.

"We played hard, pushed the tempo and found some success with our full court pressure, but we lost the game on the glass and in half-court defense," Miller said. "We missed too many assignments and loose balls and never had control of the game or our own emotions. On-court maturity comes with time and experience, and we are going to need both in order to find ourselves. This team plays with great effort, so we will get there. For tonight, this is just a disappointing loss."

Sears' 25 points nearly matched her career high of 27, set in December of 2014 against Judson. The senior now leads all current Maple Leafs with 893 points; at her 2015-16 pace of 9.8 points per game, she would need 11 more games to reach the 1,000-point plateau.

"Sophie had a solid scoring game and put a ton of pressure on their ball handlers," Miller said. "Kelsey Fraley gave us great minutes off the bench with a couple of key buckets and some solid defense, and Natalie Thorne played strong defense on their center to slow her down a bit."

Seniors Lynnia Noel and Calla Bartlett tallied 12 and eight points respectively for Goshen. Breimayer and Hannah Brefeld each led Aquinas with 19 points, four more than Ashley Bunker who also reached double figures with 15. Full statistics in categories other than scoring were not immediately available.

The Maple Leafs are back in action this weekend when they take on Brescia University at 2 p.m. Friday and Indiana University East at 3 p.m. on Saturday as a part of the IU East Tournament in Richmond, Indiana.