GOSHEN, Ind. — Three Goshen College seniors had their moment in the sun Wednesday night, each scoring at least 9 points in 30 minutes of playing time, and junior TaNiece Chapman scored the 1,000th point of her career in the third quarter of an 86-75 loss to Huntington University in a Crossroads League women's basketball contest at Ruth Gunden Gymnasium.
Chapman led the Maple Leafs with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, dropping in 8 points in the first quarter and 11 in the first half before crossing the four-digit milestone on a three-point play in the third quarter.
Senior Claire Rauck scored a career-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting while matching her season high with 5 rebounds in her first start of the year. Classmate Keyaira Murff was almost perfect from the floor, shooting 6-of-7 for a season-high-tying 12 points to go with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. GC's third senior, Mariah Roe, scored 9 points and led the team with 4 assists while canning a pair of 3-pointers for the fourth time this year.
Goshen (7-19, 3-12) shot 49 percent from the floor, hitting at least 43 percent of its shots in each quarter, and dialed up 39 percent from long-distance. The team also assisted on 19 of its 30 field goals and nabbed 11 steals — including 4 from Chapman, 3 from Graysen Cockerham and 3 from Kiarah Copeland. Cockerham led all players with 7 assists and 2 blocks.
Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, while they were efficient on offense, Huntington did even better in reaching the 85-point mark for the third time in its last seven outings. The Foresters shot a slightly lower percentage from the floor, coming in at 45 percent, but went 18-for-19 at the foul line in the second half and finished the game with a 23-8 edge in free throws.
Five Foresters scored in double figures, led by Sam Vaughn with 20 points and Emily Seboe with 16. Maddy Robrock and Erica Zook each scored 12 and Konnor Gambrell finished with 10. Vaughn and Seboe each grabbed a game-high 8 rebounds as Huntington (12-8, 8-7) won that category 35-31.
Goshen scored off the opening tip when Murff fed Chapman in the post, but Huntington went on the first run to go up 8-2 in the first 95 seconds. While the Maple Leafs were productive in the first quarter, scoring 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting, Huntington was even more efficient, dropping in 28 points on 12-of-18 shooting including three triples from Seboe.
GC held its visitor to 2-of-15 from long range over the last three quarters, climbing back into the game with a 5-0 run to end the second quarter after trailing by as many as 12 points. It was 41-34 to the guests at halftime: the teams combined for 27 points in the second period after Huntington scored 28 by itself in the first.
The teams exchanged buckets for the first half of the third quarter before Rauck and Roe hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 6-0 Maple Leaf run that brought the team within 52-51 at the 4:24 mark. As Huntington called timeout to regain its bearings, the gym came to its feet to recognize Rauck for passing Kelsy McKee and earning a spot in GC's record books with her 99th 3-pointer, the 10th-most on record.
Each team came up empty on its next possession and HU's Dazia Drake scored with 3:49 left to put the Foresters back up three. After another set of empty possessions, Chapman worked her way into the post and scored on a Cockerham feed against a Forester foul.
After her free throw tied the score at 54, Goshen took a timeout. Again, the Maple Leaf faithful rose to celebrate a milestone as the team mobbed Chapman in celebration of her 1,000th career point.
Despite Goshen's feel-good moments, Huntington scored the next 7 points, getting a 3-point play from Zook and four more free throws to go up 61-54. Goshen made it 61-55 at the end of the quarter.
After Huntington opened the fourth-quarter scoring, Goshen went on an 8-2 run to get back within two points: Rauck scored 5 of those 8 points and Murff contributed a bucket as GC trimmed the lead to 65-63 with 7:53 left. Baskets by Rauck and Cockerham brought the Maple Leafs back within a point twice more in the next two minutes, but each time HU answered to go ahead by 3.
The Maple Leafs came up empty on two chances to tie the score and a Robrock bucket made it 73-68 with 4:14 remaining. Again, Goshen scored on each of its next two trips to create a one-possession game, but Huntington answered both times. The Foresters salted away the game by going 9-for-10 at the line over the last two minutes.
Despite the loss, Goshen locked in its first-round playoff matchup for its first trip to the postseason in four years. The Maple Leafs are guaranteed the seventh seed in the Crossroads League tournament thanks to their season sweep of Grace, who sits in eighth. Indiana Wesleyan knocked off Taylor on Wednesday night, locking the Wildcats into the second spot and meaning Goshen will visit IWU next Tuesday night.
Top seed Marian, second-seeded Indiana Wesleyan, seventh-seeded Goshen, eighth-seeded Grace and ninth-seeded Bethel are all locked into place in the conference standings; the fun of Saturday's Decision Day comes in the middle of the league standings where Taylor, Mount Vernon Nazarene, Huntington and Saint Francis are within two games of one another for the third through sixth spots.
Goshen concludes the regular season on Saturday with a visit to Bethel University in another installment of the U.S. Highway 20 Cup rivalry. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. in Gates Gymnasium at the Wiekamp Center in Mishawaka.
Comments from Goshen head coach Stephanie Miller:
"I was proud of the way our kids battled all game long. Huntington came out hot and we had to dig in and battle back. We never quit and just kept chipping away.
"I thought we executed well and got the ball inside with the bigs and attacked the rim well with our guards. TaNiece had a monster night tonight, and our seniors all played a tremendous game and gave great effort. Murff was so tough inside, powered through contact and went hard on the glass. Mariah did a really nice job setting others up by digging into the paint and hit a couple big 3s when we needed them. Claire Rauck was just phenomenal. Her effort, her toughness on the glass and her stroke from downtown was just all clicking tonight.
"Those three seniors left it all out there tonight, and I am very proud of them. But our team also gave them the energy, excitement and team effort that they deserved as a show of respect. The game may have gotten away in the final 2 minutes, but I think we got better tonight and the leadership shown by our senior class was even more than I could have asked for."
