By Tony Miller
Sports Information Director

GOSHEN, Ind. — Keyaira Murff's game-high 14 rebounds, the most by any Goshen College women's basketball player in more than a year, in her college debut weren't enough to push the Maple Leafs past Holy Cross in a 56-41 defeat Friday at Gunden Gymnasium.

Sporting a roster with six freshmen and three multi-year letterwinners, Goshen (0-1) trailed 15-8 at the end of the first quarter. Holy Cross (2-0) goaded the Maple Leafs into nine turnovers in the first half, giving the ball away three times themselves, and led 25-18 at the intermission.

Goshen's defense did its part despite the lack of offensive execution: the Maple Leafs held HCC to a 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) shooting performance in the second stanza and held a 27-19 edge on the glass at halftime behind eight caroms from Murff. Unfortunately for GC, several of the rebounds were their own, the results of 10 fruitless tries from downtown in the first 20 minutes.

Holy Cross opened the third quarter on a 7-0 run to stretch the lead out to 15 points before allowing their hosts to creep back in. The Maple Leafs outscored the Saints 9-7 over the balance of the period and got baskets from Murff and Taylor Roasa to close within eight at the 9:12 mark of the fourth, but could get no closer.

The Saints finished with a 31.8 percent shooting clip from the floor, knocking down 27 of 66 shots. Goshen's 15-for-54 mark was good for 27.8 percent. The teams combined to shoot south of 25 percent from distance and 55 percent from the foul line.

"We have hard-working, good kids with potential, but potential doesn't win games like experience does, so we're going to be a work in progress early on," said Goshen coach Stephanie Miller. "We need some time to grow together, learn how to execute and have more poise than we did tonight. The way we've been practicing, I was hoping we wouldn't show our youth as much as we did. These first few weeks will be a crash course on what it means to play college basketball and there will be peaks and valleys, but I like our chances if we keep working hard.

Senior Carley O'Neal paced Goshen with 15 points, one better than her career high from last fall. Lipinski added seven points to go with career highs in rebounds (eight) and assists (two): Hanna Hochstetler matched that assist total for a career high of her own. The Maple Leafs won the glass 45-38.

"Carley had a solid opening game and shot the ball quite well while trying to provide stability for our younger players," Miller said. "Murff showed flashes of what she will be capable of in the future with a tremendous effort on the glass. With how hard this crew plays for each other, it's just a matter of time before we find a way to click on the floor."

Murff's 14 boards were the most by a Goshen player since 2016; Keshia Ward's 18-carom effort two days before Thanksgiving in 2015 was the last time a GC player posted more.

Tagin Schultheis led all players with 20 points for Holy Cross, which got three assists apiece from her and Eryn Leek. Kaelyn Barlow's eight rebounds and three blocks led the visiting side while Schultheis added seven steals.

Goshen hosts an Aquinas team that received votes in the NAIA preseason coaches poll at 7 p.m. Tuesday.