RIO GRANDE, Ohio — Tahj Curry came within a rebound and two assists of a triple-double Friday night and Michael Bowers led all scorers with 23 points as the Goshen College men's basketball team topped Ohio Christian University 83-78 at the Domino's Classic hosted by the University of Rio Grande.
The Maple Leafs (2-2) didn't give up a basket in the final 6:22 of regulation, finishing the game on a 13-2 run behind 6 points from Bowers and 5 from Curry.
Austin Branagan scored 15 points while Colin Flowers and Phillip Hughes each went 5-for-6 from the floor to finish with 12 and 10 points respectively. Curry led all players with 9 rebounds and Branagan had 8. Bowers also picked off a game-high 3 steals.
Juan Woods led Ohio Christian (0-3) with 20 points and Justin Barksdale added 15. Ben Casey and Keaton Lowe also finished in double figures with 11 and 10 respectively. Devon Miller led the team with 6 rebounds.
"I'm proud of our guys' fight and reliance in this game," said head coach Jon Tropf. "We made some mistakes but we never gave up. We got down, but we continued to battle and hit big shots when it mattered. We had really good production from our bench, which was huge."
Goshen's bench finished with 15 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals, but three of the four non-starters played double-digit minutes led by Kedrick Bibby with 19. Braden Kingery connected on a 3-pointer in his 13 minutes.
The Maple Leafs shot better from outside the arc (9-for-15, 60 percent) than inside it (22-for-37, 59 percent). Bowers chipped in 3 triples while Curry and Flowers each had 2. Bowers also swished 6 free throws, 2 short of Woods for the game high.
Goshen's defense had a five-minute span with no field goals allowed in the first half, letting the offense turn a 7-5 deficit into a 12-7 lead before another 6-0 spurt made it 18-12 Maple Leafs with 11:19 left.
Curry and Flowers combined on an 8-0 run to take a 34-26 lead with 5:20 left, but the Trailblazers scored 10 of the last 12 points in the first half to go up 42-40 at intermission.
OCU shot 50 percent (16-for-32) in the first half before falling off to 44 percent (14-for-32) in the second. They hit 32 percent (7-for-22) from long range.
The Trailblazers used a 7-0 run out of the half to stretch the lead and still led by 7 as late as the 8:30 mark. Triples from Branagan, Curry and Kingery kept the visitors close, though, and Bowers hit a pair of free throws with 5:23 left to pull within four at 76-72. After a pair of OCU turnovers, Bowers scored again and Curry tied the score at 76 with 3:50 left.
Branagan, Bowers and Curry all scored in GC's game-ending 7-2 run from that point: over the last six minutes and change, Ohio Christian was 0-for-10 with four turnovers.
The Domino's Classic continues tomorrow as Goshen takes on host Rio Grande at 3 p.m.
