OAKLAND CITY, Ind. — A trio of Goshen College men's basketball players scored 20 or more points in the team's return to the court Wednesday afternoon, but the Mighty Oaks of Oakland City University outscored the Maple Leafs 89-87 in overtime at the Johnson Center.
Tahj Curry led the Maple Leafs with 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting while Ryan Mansbarger sank four 3-pointers in his season debut to finish with 22. Austin Branagan added 20 points.
Mansbarger led the team with 7 rebounds, joining Phillip Hughes at the team high, while Curry pulled down 6 boards to go with 11 assists. Curry and Branagan each had three steals.
Oakland City finished the game on an 8-0 run behind four points from Tyler Camplin and two each from Kase Robinson and Nathaniel Schmittler. Schmittler led all players with 30 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks. Jacob Sanford added 19 points and Camplin contributed 16.
The Mighty Oaks (2-6) raced to an early 11-5 lead behind 5 points each from Schmittler and Sanford. Goshen (3-12) pulled within 1 point three times before grabbing the lead for the first time on a Branagan layup at the 4:23 mark which capped a 9-0 run. GC took its largest lead of the half, 41-37, into the locker room.
An 11-0 Goshen run, including three triples in four possessions, put the team up 58-43 at the 12:36 mark of the second half; while the Mighty Oaks whittled their lead back to single digits, another 9-2 run gave GC its largest lead of the game at 16 points with 7:17 remaining.
The hosts remained unfazed, holding Goshen off the scoreboard for almost four minutes on a 13-0 run that brought them back to 69-66 before a Curry triple doubled the lead at 3:35. The Oaks added a 6-0 spurt to close within 73-72 at the 1:31 mark, only to turn the ball over on their next possession and give up a 3-point play to Curry with 48 seconds left.
The Mighty Oaks scored on each of their next two possessions as GC went 1-for-4 at the foul line. Leading by a point, the Maple Leafs fouled with 3 seconds remaining and Sanford made one of two to send the game into overtime at 77-all.
DJ Redding opened the extra session with a pair of free throws before Curry added 10 of the next 12 points to put Goshen up 87-81. Schmittler answered with a bucket on the other end to keep OCU within four, 87-83, and Camplin made two free throws to halve the lead with 80 seconds left.
A Schmittler block kept Goshen off the scoreboard on the next possession and Camplin answered with a layup to tie the score at 87 with 55 seconds left.
After Goshen missed two free throws, Robinson scored his only points of the game with 5 seconds on the shot clock and 8 on the game clock for OCU's first lead of overtime. That would end the scoring.
The Maple Leafs shot 17-of-32 from the floor in the second half, finishing at 53 percent over the last 25 minutes and 50 percent for the game. They were 12-of-28 (43 percent) from the foul line. OCU finished at 40 percent (31-for-77) from the floor and 70 percent (21-for-30) at the line along with a 53-41 rebounding edge.
Goshen's scheduled contest with Trinity International University on Saturday has been canceled, so at this time the team will return to the floor on Wednesday, Jan. 6, when it opens the 2021 calendar at Marian University in Indianapolis. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
