UPLAND, Ind. — Ryan Mansbarger posted a double-double and Tahj Curry led the Goshen College men's basketball team with 28 points Wednesday night, but Austin Branagan's 1,000th career point was the historical highlight of the evening in a 79-73 loss to Taylor University at TU's Odle Arena in a Crossroads League matchup.
Branagan became the 29th player in school history to reach quadruple figures in the scoring column when he scored from the paint at the 18:57 mark of the second half. He finished the night with 17 points, raising his career total to 1,008 and passing Moe Miller to move into 28th on the all-time list.
Curry led the Maple Leafs (3-18, 1-11) with an 11-of-18 shooting night, including a pair of 3-pointers, in a game-high 38 minutes. Branagan was 8-of-14 from the floor while Mansbarger was 4-of-10 to finish with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Kedrick Bibby also added 10 points to go with 7 boards.
CJ Penha led all scorers with 35 points for the Trojans (11-8, 5-6), including scoring his own 1,000th point seconds before Branagan hit his milestone. Penha shot 13-for-21 from the floor and went 8-of-9 at the foul line,7 adding a team-high 9 rebounds.
GC scored six of the first eight points and held a six-point lead as late as 13-7, but Taylor took its first lead shortly thereafter with a 7-0 run to go up 14-13. Neither team would lead by more than four points again until the closing seconds of the first half, when the Trojans used an 11-2 run to erase a Goshen lead and go up 36-28. Curry added a 3-pointer on Goshen's last possession to come within 36-31 at halftime.
The Trojans went on another run early in the second period, outscoring the Maple Leafs 9-2 to go up 12 at the 16:43 mark. Not to be outdone, Goshen promptly scored 14 of the next 16 points and tied the score at 51 on a Branagan bucket with 10:29 remaining.
Taylor answered that counterpunch with 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions before going 5-of-5 at the foul line, opening up an 8-point lead at 63-55 less than 3 minutes later. While the hosts never led by more than 9 the rest of the way, Goshen also never came closer than 5 points.
The Trojans shot 46 percent from the floor, outdoing the Maple Leafs by less than half a percentage point. The hosts did have an advantage from long range, though, hitting 9 triples to Goshen's 4.
Curry led Goshen with 3 assists, tying three Trojans for the game high. Michael Bowers added 2 steals while Branagan and Bibby each blocked 2 shots.
GC plays its final scheduled non-conference game of the season on Saturday at Spring Arbor University, a CL member school that is playing non-conference games this year due to Michigan COVID-19 restrictions affecting its schedule. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. in SAU's McDonald Athletic Center.
