MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — TaNiece Chapman led Goshen College with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a blocked shot Saturday as the Maple Leafs lost 89-59 at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in their antepenultimate women's basketball game of the season.
Janara Flowers also scored in double figures, adding one of the team's four 3-point field goals on the way to 10 points. Chapman, Graysen Cockerham and Kiarah Copeland also connected from downtown while Cockerham and Keyaira Murff each grabbed 5 rebounds.
Rylee Pireu led Mount Vernon Nazarene (13-9, 9-5 Crossroads League) with 24 points on the back of 7-of-11 shooting, including a 6-of-9 night from downtown. Maggie Coe added 3 more triples to finish with 15 points while Taylor Gregory worked the inside to score 14 on 7-of-14 shooting.
MVNU outrebounded Goshen 39-33, but neither team had a player fetch more than 5 boards: Gregory, Rachel Perry and Elizabeth Fee all hit that mark for the hosts. Sage Brannon led all players with 5 assists while Fee and Erin Boehm each had 4.
The Cougars shot 49 percent from the floor, holding Goshen (7-18, 3-11) to 34 percent. That difference was exacerbated in the first quarter, when MVNU hit at 53 percent and added 3 triples and 8 field goals on the way to a 27-16 lead. GC whittled the margin to 7 three times in the second quarter before the hosts finished the half on an 8-2 run to lead 40-27.
Another 7-0 Mount Vernon Nazarene run pushed the lead to 21 in the third quarter; Goshen immediately countered with a Copeland triple and a Chapman bucket to reduce its deficit to 16, but could get no closer. A 9-0 MVNU spurt early in the fourth put the hosts up as many as 35.
Despite suffering the loss, Goshen was locked into the seventh seed in the Crossroads League tournament later in the afternoon when Bethel lost to Indiana Wesleyan. While Grace can still catch the Maple Leafs if three remaining games break the "right" way, Goshen holds the tiebreaker based on a head-to-head sweep of the Lancers.
Goshen will return home for the final time this season when it plays Huntington University on Wednesday for Senior Night at Ruth Gunden Gymnasium. GC's three members of the class of 2021 —Murff, Claire Rauck and Mariah Roe — will be honored as the Maple Leafs host Huntington University at 7 p.m.
