Senior Billy Geschke scored 23 points Saturday afternoon as Goshen College downed Grace College 86-80 in the 130th installment of the two schools' men's basketball rivalry, a Crossroads League affair at Gunden Gymnasium.

Geschke and Devin Heath-Granger each scored 13 points in a first half that saw the Maple Leafs (10-8, 3-3) lead by as many as 14, taking a 43-32 lead into the intermission. Goshen hit on 14 of its 34 shots (41.2 percent) in the opening stanza while holding Grace (7-11, 0-6) to 37 percent at 10-for-27.

Goshen got to that point despite sitting four of its starters for at least six minutes in the first half. Heath-Granger picked up his second foul 4:48 into the game, followed by Alhassan Barrie at the 8:44 mark, Christian Grider at 5:42 and Colton Noel at 3:26. The Maple Leafs went 10 deep in a first half that saw 11 fouls per team: Carter Boos played seven minutes and Ben Cotton two.

The Lancers used a 9-2 run to trim their deficit to six points at 55-49 with 12:40 remaining: while Grace's defense held Goshen without a basket for more than four minutes after a Noel score at the 9:02 mark, a 10-of-12 clip at the foul line in that span kept the hosts ahead by at least four points the entire time.

Conner Funkhouser snapped Goshen's field-goal drought with three of his 21 points to put the Leafs up 78-69 at the 4:32 mark. Grace's best chance at a comeback started there, a 7-0 run capped by two Erik Bowen free throws at the 2:27 mark that made it 78-76. The Lancers got the ball back after those foul shots, the result of a Goshen flagrant foul, but the tables shifted drastically seven seconds later when Bowen picked up a charge to foul out with 16 points.

The Leafs bled 28 seconds off the clock on the next possession to go up four on a Grider bucket; even as Grace scored again, this time on a Logan Godfrey bucket with a chance for a 3-point play, the clock dwindled to 1:31.

Noel got the rebound on the unsuccessful foul shot, and again Goshen burned clock: the next shot came after 27 seconds of the 30 allotted. It was a miss, but again Goshen cleaned the defensive glass. The Maple Leafs finished the game with 28 defensive rebounds while allowing Grace a second chance just four times.

Trailing 82-80 in the final minute, the Lancers played for a stop. They didn't get one: Heath-Granger scored his 17th and 18th points, coming in one below his four-day-old season high, to double the lead with 27 seconds left. After Grace missed twice on the other end, the guests had to foul, where Grider and Funkhouser iced the game.

"I feel a little like Clint Eastwood after this one: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," said Goshen interim head coach Jon Tropf. "The last six minutes of the first half were some of our best of the year. That's a testament to our bench, especially Ben and Carter. The second half was pretty ugly, but we got a big shot from Devin late and a big stop as well. Rivalries are almost always close and Grace took us out of our stuff, but I'm proud of the fight to win late."

Barrie led Goshen with nine rebounds, coming up a board shy of his third double-double with 10 points. Geschke and Heath-Granger led the team with four assists each while Heath-Granger added four steals. Goshen's Patryck Ostrowski led all players with three blocks.

Geschke matched his career high with seven rebounds: Heath-Granger added six to miss his by one carom.

Logan Godfrey led Grace with 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting: Bowen and Jaret Sons each tossed in 16, the latter doing so with seven makes in nine tries off the bench. Haden Deaton paced the Lancers with four assists; point guard Braxton Linville was one of three Grace players with three and led the team with seven boards.

The visitors warmed up to shoot 18-of-31 (58 percent) after halftime while holding Goshen to 12-of-29 (41.4 percent). Grace turned the ball over seven times to Goshen's two in that span, however, and gave the hosts 28 free throws of which 18 were successful.

Geschke passed Roger Springer for 11th on Goshen's all-time scoring list with a three-pointer 4:10 before halftime: he now sports 1,248 points, exactly 100 shy of 10th-place Mark Landes. Heath-Granger made his record-book mark early, posting three steals in the first five minutes: his four takeaways moved him into a fifth-place tie with Eric Walsh at 167 steals. He added four assists, leaving him one shy of 500 total.

Goshen returns to the floor on Tuesday when the Maple Leafs visit Mount Vernon Nazarene at 7 p.m.