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Goshen College

Austin Branagan vies for the opening tip.

Men's Basketball

Second-half run sends Goshen past Concordia

Box Score

GOSHEN, Ind. — Austin Branagan scored a career-high 33 points on 12-of-17 shooting Saturday evening and the Goshen College men's basketball team shot better than 50 percent from the floor in a 90-80 win over Concordia University Ann Arbor on Movember Day at Gunden Gymnasium.

Branagan poured in 17 points in the first half and 16 in the second to go with a team-high 8 rebounds, all of which he accomplished despite sitting out the final minutes with 4 fouls.

Colton Noel, Michael Bowers and Tahj Curry all scored 12 points: two of the three men had high-percentage shooting nights, with Noel going 6-of-7 and Bowers 5-of-7 from the floor, while Curry posted a double-double with a game-high 10 assists.

The Maple Leafs (3-3) finished with 20 assists against 15 turnovers and shot 51 percent (36-of-71) from the floor. Goshen canned 10 3-pointers and held a 42-37 advantage on the glass.

Jerald Booker scored 18 points and Greg Alexander added 12 for the Cardinals (2-3). Booker also led the team in shooting, going 7-of-11 from the floor and sinking both treys he tried. Paul Zysk had a game-high 9 rebounds and Concordia shot 46 percent (32-of-70) from the floor.

The Cardinals opened the game with the first 8 points, but the Maple Leafs hit back in the form of a 12-0 run, half of which came from Branagan, and led 12-8 six minutes in. From that point forward, neither team led by more than 4 for the balance of the half, which ended 41-37 to Goshen after Bowers scored the last 4 points.

Goshen came out hot after halftime, outscoring the Cardinals 49-43 and shooting 18-for-31 (58 percent). Branagan scored the first five points of the half and GC scored 14 in the first three and a half minutes, but a 10-0 run really blew the game open to the point of 67-50 with 12:20 left.

Booker and Greg Alexander stopped the bleeding temporarily with baskets for Concordia, but by the 7:06 mark, Goshen's lead was 30 and the Maple Leafs had scored 28 of the last 33 points over an 8-minute span. During the run, GC shot 10-of-15 from the floor while holding the Cardinals to 2-for-16 shooting.

Thomas Hronis scored Concordia's last 10 points and 12 of the last 20.

Goshen's 90 points were a season high and would have been the team's third-best output last fall. The 49-point second half was the second-best figure of the season.

The Maple Leafs go north of the border this week to square off with Eastern Michigan University on Tuesday in an exhibition, with tip-off set for 7 p.m.

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