GOSHEN, Ind. — Haley Archibeque's season-high nine points paced the Goshen College women's basketball team Saturday in a 74-50 loss to the University of Saint Francis on Professor/Staff Appreciation Day at GC's Gunden Gymnasium.

Carley O'Neal added nine points for the Maple Leafs, who also got seven apiece from Makayla Collier and Claire Rauck off the bench.

Kara Gerka scored a game-high 22 points and Lindsey Kistler 21 for Saint Francis (15-10, 7-6 Crossroads League). Despite missing their first four shots, the visitors led 18-9 at the quarter after using a 9-0 run to seize the advantage; it was 39-22 at halftime.

Goshen (1-25, 0-14) had its best shooting performance of the day in the second quarter, going 6-of-12 from the floor and adding a foul shot as five players put the biscuit in the basket. Buoyed by triples from O'Neal, Archibeque and Rauck, GC put up 15 points in the second period before adding 13 in the third.

The Maple Leafs added four offensive rebounds in the final stanza, one in which they got another 3-pointer from Makayla Collier 94 seconds into the quarter. Saint Francis, meanwhile, saw its offensive production shift from the floor to the foul line, from where the Cougars scored 10 of their last 17 points.

USF finished the game with 45 rebounds to Goshen's 29, getting nine boards from Gerka and six apiece from Kistler and Shayna Temple. Stein and Rauck led Goshen with six caroms each, combining for six of the team's nine cleanings of the offensive glass between them.

An active Goshen defense got 17 turnovers, including nine steals: Archibeque and Mariah Roe each contributed three takeaways. That particular sword was double-edged, however, as USF posted a 21-11 edge in points off turnovers.

"There is never any question that my payers are going to work hard, but to win in this league, we have to produce better numbers," Goshen coach Stephanie Miller said. "My group makes me so proud of their attitude, effort, and determination to fight for 40 minutes, but we can't get smacked on the glass, turn it over almost 20 times, and shoot under 40 percent and expect to win."

The Maple Leafs finished with 19 turnovers: they went 20-for-60 (33.3 percent) from the floor and 4-of-16 (25 percent) from 3-point range. Saint Francis also came in under its season averages at 41 percent (25-for-61) overall and 27.6 percent (8-of-29) from distance.

Two Goshen players turned in milestones related to blocks: Archibeque set a new season high and matched her career high with two, while Murff contributed three to bring her season total to 40. That figure leaves her in fourth place on the single-season Maple Leaf block list; with at least four games left in her freshman season, she needs one more stuff to reach the top 10 for a career.

"I was happy to see Haley really get after it today," Miller said. "She was more attacking on offense today and really played aggressively on both ends of the floor. Makayla Collier came in off the bench and really did a nice job with her minutes today. She was a nice spark and attacked the basket hard."

The team invited Dr. Rebecca Stoltzfus, who will be inaugurated as GC's 18th president on Feb. 17, to join it as honorary coach for the day.

On Professor/Staff Appreciation day, each Maple Leaf player from both the men's and women's teams, selected at least one professor to invite to the doubleheader. When the players presented their guests with Maple Leaf athletics-themed gifts between games, the resulting visualization of the interconnectedness of a liberal-arts education stretched past the baselines on both ends of the floor.

"It was such a wonderful honor to have president Stoltzfus join us on the bench as an honorary coach today," Miller said. "We were also truly touched by the number of staff members and professors that came out to the game today to support both the men and women. Our players were excited to honor them today. These amazing staff members have had such a positive impact on the lives of our players, and it felt great to be able to let them all know how much we truly appreciate all the work they do for our student-athletes."

The 24-point margin was the second-closest of the day as the favorites held serve across the Crossroads League; with four games left in the regular season, eighth-place Spring Arbor sits three games clear of 10th-place Goshen for the last position in the conference tournament.

The Maple Leafs will continue jockeying for playoff positioning Wednesday when they welcome a Mount Vernon Nazarene club that has lost six straight after starting league play 6-2. The Maple Leafs and Cougars will tip off at 7 p.m. in Gunden Gymnasium, starting a stretch where Goshen plays the seventh- and eighth-place teams in the league in an eight-day span.