GOSHEN, Ind. — Janara Flowers led the Goshen College women's basketball team with 11 points Saturday as the Maple Leafs got back on the winning track with a 62-45 win over Spring Arbor University in Ruth Gunden Gymnasium.
Sadre'a Rougeau added 10 points while Graysen Cockerham led the Maple Leafs (6-15) with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Keyaira Murff also added 3 assists and 2 blocks while moving within four rebounds of Donna Porter for the sixth-most in GC history.
Goshen shot 49 percent from the floor while holding its opponent to 32 percent; either one more make or one fewer miss would have left the Maple Leafs at an even 50 percent. A swarming GC defense also racked up 9 steals.
Anne Marie Wright led all scorers with 16 points for Spring Arbor (4-4) but needed 14 shots from the floor and 2 free throws to get there. Teona Feldpausch and Grace Shoobridge added 10 and 8 points respectively on top of a team-high 6 rebounds apiece.
Three days after getting beaten 47-28 on the glass in a loss at Taylor, Goshen bounced back and outrebounded Spring Arbor 35-30.
Goshen led for more than 35 minutes in the game, trailing for 80 seconds and playing with a tie score for 2 minutes and 53 seconds, both entirely in the first quarter. Claire Rauck's 3-pointer with 38 seconds left in the quarter gave the Maple Leafs a lead they would never relinquish.
Wright scored on the other end to make it 17-16 after 10 minutes, but GC opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run to take its largest lead to that point at 23-16. Another 6-0 run later in the quarter, which included Emily Brandeberry's second field goal in as many games, pushed the lead to nine and it was 32-25 at halftime.
While Shoobridge went on a personal 4-0 run out of the locker room, the Maple Leafs countered with another 6-0 spurt as the lead reached double digits at 40-29 with 5:03 left in the third. After three instances of double-digit leads, SAU scored on the last possession of the quarter to close within 45-37.
That was as close as the Cougars would get. Rougeau scored first in the fourth quarter and Goshen stifled Spring Arbor to the tune of 3½ minutes without a point. Shoobridge scored with 6:22 remaining to make it 47-39 before TaNiece Chapman and Kiarah Copeland went on a 7-0 run. By the time SAU scored again, it had gone 5:54 with four misses and three turnovers against a solitary basket.
A 11-point lead with 3:30 to go probably would have been enough, but Cockerham and Flowers combined to score six straight points in a 54-second span to flesh the lead out to 17. Camryn Kopka added a basket in the closing seconds.
While both teams are members of the Crossroads League, Saturday's win did not count as a conference victory for purposes of making the conference tournament: SAU is playing non-conference games this season due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on its schedule. With six gamedays left on the schedule, Goshen sits in seventh place among the remaining 9 teams at 3-8; Grace is 2-11 and Bethel 0-10. The top eight teams make the conference tournament.
The road gets more difficult for the Maple Leafs next week, partially because they have to go back on the road for four of their final five games and partially because the teams they get to play next week are ranked in the NAIA top 20.
Goshen travels to 19th-ranked Indiana Wesleyan in Marion on Wednesday for a game that tips off at 7 p.m. EST before visiting 5th-ranked Marian in Indianapolis on Saturday.
Comments from Goshen coach Stephanie Miller:
"This was a great team effort for us in every way. We shared the scoring and rebounding duties, we shared the ball and took care of the ball, and we shared minutes which allowed us to play deep and wear down SAU late in the game.
"The keys for us were that we controlled the glass, pushed the tempo and used four quarters of consistent pressure to keep them scrambled and not allow them to comfortably get into their Princeton offense.
"We had great performances from so many players that did the little things today. Sadre'a Rougeau really stepped up and made big plays for us tonight as well as Claire Rauck, who may have done the best job blocking out and getting rebounding position of anyone on our team.
"Janara Flowers was also really efficient offensively and mixed it up well with dribble attacks and outside shots. She and Keyaira Murff have also been doing a tremendous job defensively for us! The energy and effort was there today from the kids in the game as well as those on the bench.
"It also felt fantastic to have the excitement of even a small crowd back in the gym!"
