GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College women's basketball team tipped off the Crossroads League portion of its season Tuesday evening in an exciting but fruitless affair, dropping a 51-44 decision to Huntington University at Gunden Gymnasium.

Neither squad led by more than nine throughout the four-quarter chess match, which was tied on six separate occasions.

Goshen (1-7, 0-1) held Huntington (7-1, 1-0) without a basket through the opening six minutes, but could muster just four points of its own and the Foresters tied the game in a 49-second spurt soon thereafter. GC countered with a 7-2 run including five points from Claire Rauck and led 12-8 at the quarter.

Donnae Lipinski opened the second stanza with five straight points, pushing Goshen's lead to 17-8. Huntington responded by forcing several of its 13 first-half takeaways and tying the score again at 19 before Mariah Roe's basket 80 seconds ahead of the horn put the Maple Leafs on top heading into halftime.

Neither team shot the ball well in the third quarter, splitting six field goals on 24 tries. Goshen used an 11-9 rebounding edge, a pair of 3-pointers from Carley O'Neal and a 5-of-6 performance at the foul line to keep the score tied at 34 with 10 minutes remaining; Huntington had taken its first lead at the 2:22 mark and led 34-30 with 97 seconds left before Rauck drained four foul shots.

The Maple Leafs fell behind 14 seconds into the fourth quarter on a Sarah Fryman 3-point play before getting a quick 7-0 run to pull ahead 41-37. Taylor Roasa scored at the 5:37 mark to re-extend Goshen's lead to 43-40; from there, the turnover bug found the inexperienced Leafs late as Goshen would manage one more point.

In fact, the chess match turned to Yahtzee when Huntington tied the score at 44-44 with exactly four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. A pair of turnovers by GC ensued to negate any chance of late-game heroics as the Foresters used a three-ball by Hailey Krewald and four points from Fryman to ice the evening. Fryman led all scorers with 16 points.

Each team struggled to hang on to the basketball: Huntington let the rock slip away 15 times while Goshen turned it over a season-high 22 times. Both teams also struggled from the field as neither team converted upon more than one-third of its shot attempts.

The story of the scoring column came by way of the free-throw line for HU. The Foresters shot just 68.4 percent from the stripe, but their 19 attempts led to 13 made freebies compared to Goshen's seven. The two conference foes combined to commit 12 fouls in the first half before matching that figure in the third quarter; Goshen finished with 18 fouls to Huntington's 12.

Goshen came out slightly ahead on the glass with 37 rebounds to Huntington's 34, although the Foresters would have the game's leading rebounder with Brooke Saylor getting 12. Keyaira Murff led the potent GC defensive attack with 11 caroms, three steals and one blocked shot.

Senior Carley O'Neal tallied a team-high 11 while Donnae Lipinski provided a career-high 10 off the bench for the Maple Leafs. Rauck added nine while Saylor joined Fryman as the only other Forester reaching double digits with 11. Krewald and South Adams High School product Cindy In't Groen tacked on seven points apiece. Maddie Richer led all players with four assists for HU, one more than Saylor.

Goshen will venture back out of the Crossroads League as the team sets aside its turkey to partake in the Siena Heights University Thanksgiving Classic this Friday and Saturday. The Maple Leafs will commence tournament play Friday against the hosts at 7 p.m. before playing IU Northwest or Pikeville on Saturday; Friday's losers will meet at 2 p.m. and the winners at 4.