WINONA LAKE, Ind. — Tahj Curry and Michael Bowers scored 23 points apiece Tuesday night in the Crossroads League opener, but the Goshen College men's basketball team came up short in a 92-78 loss to Grace College at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center.

Bowers paced the Maple Leafs (3-7, 0-1) with 9-of-13 shooting including a triple as he played a game-high 40 minutes. Curry added a 7-of-15 clip from the floor on top of 7 free throws and a pair of triples.

Austin Branagan added 18 points and 5 rebounds in 37 minutes while Sheddrick Porter Jr. contributed 11 points and 6 rebounds, leading the team in the latter category.

The Lancers (5-3, 0-1) were led by 24 points and 8 rebounds from Matt Jennings, who was perfect in 8 attempts at the foul line and 7-of-15 from the floor. Haden Deaton and Charlie Warner added 17 points apiece. Deaton chipped in 6 rebounds, joining point guard Braxton Linville for second-most on the team. Linville led all passers with 7 assists.

Grace shot 66 percent (19 of 29) from the floor in the first half, adding a 7-of-10 mark when dialing long-distance, on the way to a 49-35 halftime lead. Each team scored 43 points in the second half. Goshen finished with an even 50 percent (29-of-58) mark from the floor but converted on 29 percent of its 3-point tries (4 of 14).

Despite being outrebounded 33-27, Goshen made inroads on the offensive glass, pulling down seven rebounds off its own shots in the first half.

The Lancers jumped out to a quick lead, getting a pair of Jennings buckets in the opening minutes, and led by as many as 18 in the first half. Bowers scored half of a 10-point Goshen run that made it 32-25 with 6:21 left until the intermission.

Goshen scored the first 6 points coming out of the break, trimming the margin to 8 points, and the lead rattled around 8 to 10 points for most of the proverbial third quarter. A couple of Myles Johnson scores pushed the score to 69-52 with 9:45 remaining.

The Maple Leafs had one more run in them, a 13-2 spurt that got them back with 7 by the 5-minute mark. Grace shut the door by making its last 12 free throws, finishing the game 17-for-23 (73.9 percent) on that front.

The Maple Leafs are idle this weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday before returning to the court Tuesday at Huntington in another installment of the Crossroads League's oldest continuous conference rivalry. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. in Platt Arena.