By Tony Miller
Sports Information Director

MARION, Ind. — Billy Geschke inflicted 19 first-half points on an unsuspecting Miami-Hamilton defense and Conner Funkhouser picked up the slack with 16 points after halftime as each man finished with 23 for Goshen College in a 92-75 men's basketball win Friday night in Luckey Arena.

Geschke's last basket of the opening stanza, a two-point field goal just before the horn, gave the Medina, Ohio, native 1,001 career points. It was also his last bucket of the night, as the senior got all four of his second-half tallies at the foul line to finish with a 9-of-13 mark from the floor.

Funkhouser went 6-for-8 from the floor after halftime to finish with an 8-for-11 mark, adding a team-high three 3-pointers and four foul shots. Christian Grider matched Funkhouser's total from downtown while adding 14 points, one shy of Patryck Ostrowski's total, as Goshen eclipsed its previous season-best point total by the same margin.

The Maple Leafs (3-1) outfoxed the Harriers (0-2) on the offensive glass, winning the rebound battle 50-28: Goshen got the ball back on more than half of its own misses and more than three-fourths of Miami-Hamilton's. Alhassan Barrie led all players with nine rebounds for Goshen, doing two better than Emmanuel Audu and three better than Ostrowski.

The first half saw each side struggle for a lead, with six ties and 10 lead changes in the first 18 minutes. Neither team pulled ahead by more than four points until Goshen used an 11-3 run into the locker room to earn a 46-38 halftime lead.

Miami-Hamilton scored 12 seconds into the second stanza before falling silent for almost three minutes as GC ran off eight more points to stretch the lead to 54-40. All told, Goshen outscored the Harriers 19-5 over a span of 5:34 across the intermission. In that timeframe, the Maple Leafs shot 7-for-11 (getting offensive rebounds after three of the four misses) while holding MUH to 2-for-7 with two turnovers and a missed one-and-one opportunity.

The Harriers clawed the deficit back to seven points twice after halftime, the last time at 80-73 with 4:43 left. That sparked another Goshen run: Geschke, Grider, Funkhouser and Audu combined to score 12 in a row and push the lead to 19 points while holding the visitors off the scoreboard until the last quarter-minute.

Mike Collins led all players with 26 points after draining 10 of 20 shots for the Harriers: the rest of the club was a different story as Miami-Hamilton shot 15-for-40 (37.5 percent) and missed 15 three-point tries in the second half alone. Braden Burnside added 16 points and Charon Hill 12.

Devin Heath-Granger led all players with eight assists for the Maple Leafs while adding three steals to jump past 2000 graduate Ben Johnson into the top 10 in Goshen history with 144. While the turnovers that went along with those steals were one storyline of the game, the problem wasn't as one-sided as Goshen coach Jon Tropf hoped, as his team forced 22 but made 23.

"Turnovers were a huge issue tonight and I'm a little disappointed in our lack of discipline with the ball," Tropf said. "That being said, I thought we made some strides defensively, especially in the second half. We shot the ball well and got great production from our bench."

34 of Goshen's points came from Goshen's bench, where a season-high dozen players got in on the action. Ben Cotton, Brandon Watkins and Tanner Camp each fetched multiple caroms off the bench.

Goshen shot a season-best 51.5 percent (34-for-66) from the floor while adding a 9-for-24 mark (37.5 percent) from downtown. The team struggled at the foul line, however, making 15 of its 24 tries.

The Maple Leafs conclude the Caleb Dimmich Memorial Classic on Saturday when they face the University of Rio Grande at 3 p.m. on the Indiana Wesleyan University campus.