Errick McCollum catches some air in the Leafs contest against Huntington, Tuesday. Photo by Lindsey Beck.

First round of cash prize give-a-way

With the basketball season coming to a close, the athletic department has developed a new game plan to increase support from Goshen College students.

“We are giving away cash at halftime to generate more interest,” said Tim Demant, Goshen College athletic director. “We don’t have a large student following, so maybe we can entice them with cash.”

Students are encouraged to enter their names in a ballot box at the ticket table for a 1-in-15 chance at winning a large sum of cash generated from gate revenues.  Three names will be drawn at each of the five remaining home games during halftime for a $10 prize. On February 21, the 15 winners will be pooled together, and one lucky winner will have a chance to win the grand prize of $300.

“The person who’s name will be drawn,” said Demant, “will win the $300 if they make a basket from anywhere on the court.”

Tessa Horst, a senior; Jeff Gouker, a sophomore; and Laura Printz, a junior, won the first raffle drawing during the women’s home game last Saturday as the Maple Leafs went head to head with the St. Francis Cougars.

With the return of Rachel Allen, and the outstanding performance of Heather Hahn and Cassie Greives, who together accumulated 52 points, it appeared the Leafs were destined for a win.

“[Allen] missed two games,” said Maple Leafs Coach Steve Wiktorowski, “and is still not 100 percent, but is improving and the display of talent by Hahn and Grieves was one of the best performances by a pair of players since I have been here.”

Despite the favoring odds, the Leafs could not keep up with St. Francis during the second half. With 5:37 left on the clock and the Leafs behind 77-53, a buzzer sounded through the Recreation-Fitness Center. However, the buzzer did not signify the end of the game but rather the need for a building evacuation.

“Someone pulled the fire alarm,” said Josh Gleason, Goshen College sports information director.

“It didn’t really have an impact on the outcome of the game,” said Coach Wiktorowski, “as it happened late when the game was pretty much already decided.”

With several turnovers in the last minutes of the game, the Leafs fell to the Cougars with a final score of 86-59 bringing their Mid-Central College Conference record to 1-11 and 6-20 overall.

Second round of cash prize give-a-way

The Goshen College cash prize give-a-way continued last Monday with $10 recipients Tahnee Delp, a first-year; Tyler Falk, senior; and Aaron Shenk, sophomore, being added to the $300 grand prize pool during the men’s basketball game against Huntington University.

Coming off of a high scoring win (101-95) against Bethel College, who is currently ranked first in the NAIA, the Huntington Foresters were sure to put Goshen College to the test. Putting constant pressure on Errick McCollum, last week’s national player of the week, Huntington took home a win with a final score of 80-76.

“When you’re on the road,” said Huntington’s head coach Ty Platt, “it’s tough as nails to win. GC is a quality team who has beaten Grace College twice. They have McCollum, who is the best on the team if not the NAIA. Going into the game against Goshen, we knew we had to dog [McCollum] as much as we possible. We thought we  contested him the majority of the time, but he was still able to score.”

McCollum was not the only Maple Leaf who felt the aggression of the game. Forward Nate West, a junior, was briefly taken out of the game with 5:59 left on the clock.

“I jumped to get a rebound,” said West, “and someone took my legs out, and I fell straight on my hip.”

Despite being slightly bruised, West came back into the game in less than a minute.

“I was just thinking about what I needed to do to help my team get a victory,” said West.

Adding to the Maple Leaf’s frustration, Bryce Bow, a senior, made a valiant attempt at a 3-pointer that could have taken the game into overtime.

“No game is ever decided on one play,” said Bow, “but I had a three to tie the game and missed it.”

“This was a huge game,” said Leafs Coach Gary Chupp, “because we were tied with Huntington in the standings. The guys showed a lot of heart in the second half coming back from 18 down to cut it to two. And we had several chances to tie or take the lead, but we couldn’t get over the hump. We simply have to give that kind of effort for 40 minutes.”

The Maple Leafs will continue to prepare for the upcoming M.C.C. tournament as they host Taylor University on Saturday at 3.p.m. to battle for their sixth conference win of the season.

Over the past two years, this program has raised $175,000 from gate proceeds. Though the NAIA raised a significant amount of money for Coaches vs. Cancer, the Maple Leafs struggled with their own battle against rival school Bethel College.

Coming into Saturday’s home game against the No. 22 Pilots, Goshen’s women’s team was depleted by injuries. The Maple Leafs were reduced to seven active starters due to a combination of previous player injuries and newly acquired injuries and illnesses. Kelsey Herschberher, a sophomore, was inactive after she tore her ACL in practice on Friday. Rachel Allen, a junior, did not play due to the flu.

Stormy Holder, a first-year, played despite missing the team’s game against Spring Arbor University on January 21. Battling knee and ankle injuries, Holder scored 8 points and pulled down 9 rebounds.

Despite the injuries, the Maple Leafs got off to a hot start and finished the first half with a seven point lead, 25-18.

“We got off to a very good start,” said Head Coach Steve Wiktorowski. “We surprised them a little.”

As the game wore on, however, Goshen’s thin bench hurt them. Bethel played a solid second half and Goshen simply did not have enough energy to respond, losing 66-54.

“We didn’t come out as strong as we needed to at the start of the second half,” Wiktorowski said. “We were able to hang around, but their aggressiveness and our fatigue did us in.”

The men’s basketball team also played Bethel College on Saturday. The men’s team knew they would have to play their best ball of the season in order to beat the Pilots, the No. 1 ranked team in the country.

According to Head Coach Gary Chupp, Goshen played one of their worst games of the season, losing 91-59.

“We picked a bad night to have our worst game of the year,” said Head Coach Gary Chupp. “Bethel is number one in the country for a reason, and it was a game that just continued to snowball [out of control].”

The Maple Leafs rebounded from Saturday’s loss to beat No. 18 Grace College on Tuesday by a score of 88-75. This was the second win for the Maple Leafs against the Lancers this season. Errick McCollum led all scorers with 28 points and Nate West exploded for 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

The Maple Leafs continue their M.C.C. play on Satuday as they travel to Fort Wayne to take on the University of Saint Francis Cougars at 3 p.m.

After dominating the first half, the Maple Leafs let Spring Arbor back into the game in the second half before winning 69-65.

Goshen got off to a quick start and led by as much as 14 points in the first half. Thanks to a strong defensive effort, Goshen held Spring Arbor to only 25 first half points on 30 percent shooting.

“We really got after [Spring Arbor] in the first half,” said head coach Gary Chupp. “That was as good a defensive half as we’ve had all year.”

Goshen extended its lead by 19 points plunging into the second half. However, the Leafs began to lose speed when Spring Arbor played catchup midway through the second half cutting Goshen’s lead to 9 points.

“[The 10-0 stretch] gave them confidence,” said Chupp. “They really took it to us and we backed down a bit.”

Spring Arbor chipped away at Goshen’s lead for the final 10 minutes of the game and managed to pull within one point with only a minute remaining. Striving to avoid an overtime game, Goshen hit key free throws over the final minute to put the game away.

Errick McCollum, a junior, led all scorers with 17 points. Bryce Bow, a senior, came off the bench to score 14 points, shooting 4-5 from the field and 5-5 from the free throw line. Nate West, a junior, dominated the paint and finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The victory puts Goshen at 4-4 in the conference keeping them in contention for one of the top four seeds in the MCC tournament.

The Leafs will next play away games going head to head with Indian Wesleyan on Jan. 24 and Bethel College on Jan. 31 before hosting Grace College at home at 7:00 p.m. on Feb. 3.

The men's basketball team stole a win on their sojourn to Florida over break.

While the rest of us were coping with cold weather over break, the men’s basketball team took a five-day trip to Florida to play against two quality opponents: Weber International University and Warner University.

In their first contest on Dec. 17, Goshen (11-9) notched a narrow 72-69 victory against Warner University (11-6), ranked #28 nationally. Playing close throughout, Goshen pulled away late and used a strong defensive stand to close out the game.

“We dug in on the last possession,” said head coach Gary Chupp, “and got the defensive stop when we needed.”

The Leafs won despite being outshot 51 percent to 42 percent largely because of their ability to hit the outside shot. They hit 10 three-pointers compared to Warner’s two. Juniors Errick McCollum and Nate West led the Leafs with 17 points each.

The following day, Goshen lost a tight game to Weber International University (11-4). Down 46-36 at halftime, the Leafs attempted a second-half comeback but could not put Weber International away, losing 81-79. Despite a strong offensive outing and 27 points from top scorer Errick McCollum, 19 Goshen turnovers led to easy points for Weber International.

“They completely out worked us,” said Chupp, “They pressured us and we really let them take the game to us.”

While in Florida, the team took some time to relax.

“We had a great time getting to know one another in a different setting than the basketball court,” explained Chupp. “Some of the highlights were attending a Magic vs. Spurs game, cleaning Coach Young’s clock in bowling and hanging out at the beach in Daytona.”

Goshen also won against 25th ranked Grace College (10-7) over break before going 1-2 to start the second semester. Their next game is against Marian College at home on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 3:00 pm.