GOSHEN, Ind. — Goshen College turned in its best defensive effort in more than a decade and its best ever in the Crossroads League on Wednesday night, holding Mount Vernon Nazarene University to 37 points on 24 percent shooting in a 57-37 victory at Gunden Gymnasium.

Sophia Sears scored a game-high-matching 14 points to lead the Maple Leafs (10-9, 4-3) and was joined in double figures by Sydney Stein with 11. Goshen shot 38 percent (11-for-29) from the floor in the first half and led 16-6 at the quarter before taking a 30-7 edge into the locker room at halftime.

The GC defense stifled the visitors, who mustered just two field goals before halftime. The Maple Leafs forced 11 turnovers and 14 consecutive missed shots over a 14-minute, 51-second span that ended 2:40 after halftime. The Cougars (7-11, 1-6) went 9-for-15 from the floor in the third period, assisting on six of the nine buckets to close their deficit to 45-30.

Haley Archibeque scored eight points for Goshen, adding a career-high six rebounds to go with three assists and no turnovers. Lynnia Noel led all players with five assists as GC posted helpers on 15 of its 21 baskets. Each team forced 18 turnovers.

"It's hard to be anything but happy with your team when they play that hard and with that much intensity on defense," said Goshen coach Stephanie Miller, whose team allowed 2-for-24 shooting before halftime. "MVNU is a solid club, and we made it really tough for them to get good looks in the first half. There are undoubtedly things we need to address and mistakes that were made, but I was really proud of this defensive effort."

Basista paced Mount Vernon Nazarene with 14 points while teammate Megan Beidelman grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, albeit not enough to keep Goshen from winning the glass 43-37. Angela McLean paced GC with seven caroms and Sears added six.

"Like most teams, we struggled to keep Beidleman off the glass, but we had a strong team approach to rebounding tonight," Miller said. "We kept everyone else in check and shared the duty to win the glass. Haley and Kelsey Fraley played with great pace tonight and joined Sophie and Lynnia to give us excellent guard rebounding. Overall, it was a great team win with everyone finding ways to contribute."

Sixteen of Goshen's 43 boards came from the starting backcourt of Archibeque, Sears and Noel: Fraley added four, while Caitlyn and Carley O'Neal chipped in one each to make 22 caroms for Maple Leaf guards.

The 37 points marked the fewest Goshen has allowed in any of its 383 Crossroads League games since joining the conference in 1992. GC allowed lower totals three times in the now-defunct Hoosier Conference for Women, in which it played from 1985-92: the last such contest was a 79-36 win over Earlham on January 23, 1988, some 426 conference games ago. The last time a Goshen defense allowed a point total that low in any game was a 74-19 win over Andrews University to open the 2006-07 season.

Goshen's one-point second quarter, somewhat surprisingly, did not set a program record: the "Leaflettes" of 1968-69 held Taylor scoreless in the second quarter of a 58-24 win on Groundhog Day. The Maple Leafs have held three other opponents to one point in a quarter, most recently against Taylor on Jan. 31, 1970: collegiate women played halves rather than quarters from 1975 through 2015.

Coach Stephanie Miller's team returns to the floor on Saturday at Taylor. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. with pregame radio coverage beginning at 12:45 on 91.1 The Globe.