GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College men's basketball team led by as many as 21 points in the second half Saturday afternoon and Eli Gingerich drained the final 3-pointer as the Maple Leafs topped Lincoln Christian University 79-78 at Gunden Gymnasium.

DeMarcus Stuckey scored 22 points in his Maple Leaf debut, Gingerich chipped in a career-high 14 and Alhassan Barrie added a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds as Goshen (1-0) won its season opener for the second consecutive season and fifth time in six years.

Lincoln Christian (0-1) put the first points on the scoreboard, but a 7-0 Maple Leaf run gave the hosts the lead just before the midpoint of the first half behind buckets from Patryck Ostrowski, Tamaje Blackwell and Carter Boos. Stuckey's 3-pointer sent Goshen into the halftime intermission with a 42-35 lead.

The expectant pace of the season opener played out over the course of the opening 20 minutes, which saw the teams combine for 64 shots and 16 turnovers for a possession change every 15 seconds. Goshen shot 8-of-25 (32 percent) from long range and 5-of-13 (38.5 percent) from the floor.

The Maple Leafs forced an LCU timeout less than two minutes after halftime by scoring the first seven points of the period, then pushed the lead out to 15 when a Stuckey triple made it 54-39 at the 16:48 mark.

Tanner Camp's tip-in sent GC's advantage to its high-water mark, 21 points, at 63-42 six minutes after halftime; at that point, the Maple Leafs had scored on nine second-half possessions and limited LCU to two field goals in the same span.

Just when it seemed that the outcome was decided, though, the visitors had other ideas; Walker Hartman and Brode Hopkins each knocked down 3-pointers and Zach Thompson went 4-for-4 at the foul line over the next 3 minutes as part of a 10-point Red Lion spurt. Garrett Aeilts' triple with 7:16 got the margin back down to 10 points.

From there, Aeilts and Thompson added buckets to work the score back to a tie at 72-all just before the 4-minute mark, and with the game on the line, the teams traded nine straight possessions of 15 seconds or longer.

Aeilts gave LCU its first lead since the first half on a 3-pointer with 3:21 left, only for Boos to respond with a trey of his own 21 seconds later to put Goshen back up 76-75. A miss on each end and a pair of turnovers set Hopkins up to give LCU a 79-76 edge with 1:07 to play.

The Maple Leafs took just one more shot, but it was a big one: Gingerich extended his career high with a left-wing 26-footer at the 0:45 mark, sinking his fourth 3-pointer to put Goshen back in front.

Lincoln Christian went 0-for-3 on the other end of the floor as time wound down.

Zach Thompson led all scorers with 24 points for the Red Lions, followed by 14 points for Hopkins and 12 from Aeilts. Cornelius Lawhorn paced LCU with 11 rebounds while Micah Davis matched Stuckey for the game high with 7 assists.

Quoting GC head coach Jon Tropf:
"Today we had one really good stretch and put ourselves in a position to really make a statement. Unfortunately, we got hit with a little adversity and let that impact our intensity. We did hit two big shots and got two big stops late. Their zone gave us problems and that's my fault for not preparing our guys for that. We will learn and get better from this, and as they say, a win is a win."

Notable Numbers:

34: GC guard Carter Boos played a team-high 34 minutes and contributed 9 points, matching the third-best scoring mark of his career.

3: Gingerich led all players with 3 steals.

2: With the win, Tropf became the first Maple Leaf men's basketball head coach since Ken Pletcher to win the season openers in his first two seasons. Pletcher's first two GC teams topped Defiance on Nov. 20, 1976, and Manchester on Nov. 21, 1977.

Up Next: Friday, Nov. 2 — Goshen vs. Michigan-Dearborn at Indiana Wesleyan University, 8 p.m.