JOLIET, Ill. - In their third straight contest against a ranked team or a team receiving votes, the Goshen women's basketball team lost on the road to #18 St. Francis (Ill.) on Wednesday night. The Saints improved to 5-0 with an 88-48 win and have scored at least 80 points in all five of their games this season.
The Saints got off to a hot start, leading 13-0 before
Nasiya Gause hit a three to put the Leafs on the board. St. Francis led 34-8 at the end of the first quarter - dominating in steals (7-0), points off turnovers (12-0) and second chance points (11-0). The Goshen defense settled in though, while the offense found their spark all in the second quarter. The Leafs outscored the Saints 22-19 in the quarter, outrebounding the home team by six and scoring eight more bench points. GC was 7-8 at the free-throw line in the quarter and held St. Francis to shooting 2-8 from three, after they had made six in the first quarter.
Goshen's defense improved even more in the third, this time limiting the Saints to 14 points in the quarter. Unfortunately, the Leafs lost their offensive rhythm and shot the ball at a 14% clip. The teams combined to go 0-8 from deep in the quarter. Despite four fourth-quarter blocks from the Leafs, St. Francis outscored Goshen by 13 in the fourth to win by 40.
Lucia Luque and
Zy'Ann Phinezy each had three blocks for Goshen.
Sarah Elfrey had two and
Nasiya Gause and
Vivian McSpadden each had one. The Leafs had ten blocks in the game, whereas they had nine in the first five games of the season combined. It was only the second time since the 2015-16 season that the Leafs had ten blocks in a game. The last time they had more than ten in a game was when they put up 12 against Saint Francis (Ind.) on December 5, 2015. Current head coach
Tyra Carver had one block in that game and assistant coach
Jomani Thomas had two.
Phinezy led Goshen with 12 points, six rebounds and two steals. She was just 3-11 from the field but 6-8 at the line, starting 6-6. Carie Hiler scored nine and McSpadden had eight rebounds. Luque had seven rebounds and two assists to go with her three blocks.
Goshen hosts Aquinas on Saturday, November 15, at 1:00 pm.
