GOSHEN, Ind. — Devin Heath-Granger matched his career high with 12 assists and Billy Geschke scored 25 points Saturday afternoon as Goshen College wrapped up its men's basketball season with an 89-82 loss to Marian University at Gunden Gymnasium.

The Maple Leafs (11-19, 4-14) sported a 17-4 edge in bench points while shooting better than 50 percent from the floor, although Geschke (9-for-17) was the only GC player to make a majority of his shots on more than three attempts. Heath-Granger and Christian Grider finished with 14 and 13 points, respectively, while tying for the team lead with seven rebounds apiece.

Marian (20-10, 10-8), which received votes in the most recent NAIA Division II coaches' poll, got a game-high 24 points and 17 rebounds from Reginald Kissoonlal, who went 6-for-6 at the foul line along with 9-for-14 from the floor. Four of the Knights' five starters hit better than 50 percent from the floor with all five reaching double figures. Sterling Brown chipped in 20 points and Wes Stowers 17.

The Knights led wire-to-wire in the first half, save for the 89 seconds that elapsed before Kissoonlal's opening basket. They scored seven straight points to push the lead into double figures at the 14:14 mark and led by as many as 14 as Kissoonlal grabbed eight boards in the first eight minutes.

Goshen quickly closed the deficit back to seven points with a 10-3 run bookended by Patryck Ostrowski 3-pointers; while the Maple Leafs got back within a possession three times, Marian still led 45-39 at the intermission behind 20-of-33 (60.6 percent) shooting.

The Maple Leafs got their first lead 3:05 into the second half, scoring seven of the first nine points to pull ahead on a Geschke basket before trading the lead for the next four minutes. Another Ostrowski field goal worth 50 percent more than usual gave GC its largest lead, 61-57 with 12:57 to play.

The Knights had other ideas, holding their hosts to two field goals in the next seven trips as a 10-2 run swung the pendulum to the other court.

Geschke and Conner Funkhouser alternated scoring possession-by-possession for almost two minutes, with Geschke's 3-pointer pulling his team back within 79-78 in the final 3½ minutes. Goshen's defense got a pair of stops on the other end, but after grabbing the defensive board the Maple Leafs were unable to score either time. The teams would exchange baskets on each of their next two trips; while the mano-a-mano scoring kept GC within a possession at 84-82, it also ran the clock down to 58 seconds.

The Knights were the team to break through, even when it seemed Goshen had gotten another stop: Sterling Brown missed a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left, but Mark Albers got the offensive carom and assisted on a Christian Stewart score to push the lead out to four points in the last third of a minute.

When Goshen turned the ball over on the other end, Marian got the chance to salt the game away with three makes in four tries at the foul line.

Marian's shooting touch fell off to 16-of-36 (44.4 percent) after halftime as Goshen heated up to 15-for-28 (53.6 percent). Each team fetched 16 boards in the final stanza, but Kissoonlal's early dominance on the glass was the difference as MU nabbed 35 rebounds to Goshen's 26 for the game.

Geschke finished 2-of-2 at the foul line, pushing his career totals to 271-for-306 at the stripe: the mark of 88.6 percent at the foul line is second-best in Goshen history and puts him in the top 10 in NAIA Division II history as well. Grider's 86 percent clip is sixth in Maple Leaf annals.

Heath-Granger's two steals pushed his season total to 64, passing Roger Prough and Kenny Edwards for the third-most in GC history, while Ostrowski's block put him in a tie for ninth on the single-season list there.

The game marked the final contest in the careers of five Goshen seniors, who combined for more than 4,900 points and 1,400 rebounds. Four members of the group scored 1,000 career points: Geschke and Grider became the only pair of classmates with 1,200 points in program history.

While GC's season is over on the court, that merely paves the way for awards season: the Crossroads League is expected to announce all-conference honors within the week.