GOSHEN, Ind. — Graysen Cockerham registered the second double-double of her career with 12 points and 10 rebounds Saturday afternoon as the Goshen College women's basketball team went into its Christmas break with a 68-63 loss to Indiana University South Bend in Ruth Gunden Gymnasium.
TaNiece Chapman led all scorers with 19 points, hitting on 7 of her 9 field goal tries, to go with 8 rebounds for the Maple Leafs (2-8). Keyaira Murff added 6 boards and Mariah Roe contributed 3 steals.
Emma Fisher and Maddie Gard each scored 17 points for IU South Bend (4-0), which got four 3-pointers from Courtney Haynes on her way to 14 points. Fisher led the team with 6 rebounds.
Playing their third game in four days, the Maple Leafs alternated good shooting quarters with bad ones; in the first and third periods, the team shot 15-for-27 (56 percent) overall and 3-for-6 from 3-point range, while in the second and fourth quarters, Goshen was 7-for-29 (24 percent) overall and 0-for-8 from distance.
The Maple Leafs led at the end of the first quarter when Sophia Eli, who made her first career start, scored just before the buzzer to put Goshen up 20-19. The GC defense held IUSB off the scoreboard for the first half of the second quarter, but the offense mustered one field goal in that span. Neither team led by more than four points in the second quarter and it was 33-all at halftime.
Goshen connected on buckets on two of its first three possessions out of the locker room to go up 37-33, only to turn around and allow an 8-2 run to fall behind. Suzanna Yoder's 3-pointer sparked a 5-0 spurt to put the Maple Leafs back in front before a Titan triple made GC's lead 50-49 after three periods.
IUSB scored on the first possession of the fourth quarter, but it would be nearly six minutes before another made field goal in either direction as Fisher scored to put the Titans up 55-54 with 4:07 left. Murff's bucket on the other end gave Goshen a 56-55 lead, but IUSB put together two straight scores to pull up 60-56 just before the 3-minute mark.
The Maple Leafs did their damage at the foul line, hitting three shots on two possessions to close within 62-61 with 1:22 left, but turned the ball over to start the final minute and missed a pair of shots on their next possession.
GC finished with a 43-35 edge on the rebounding glass but turned the ball over 20 times.
Goshen returns to the court after Christmas on Wednesday, Dec. 30 with a visit to Holy Cross College in St. Joseph County. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.
