The Lady Leafs battled the Indian Wesleyan Bobcats all during their game on Wednesday night, Jan. 26, but came up short by a 66-53 count.
The Leafs came out strong early, scoring the first four points of the game and held the 8th ranked Bobcats to only three points through the first eight minutes to hold a 10-3 lead. It did not take long for the Cats to heat up as they went on an 8-0 run to take an 11-10 lead.The two teams battled back and forth, going through five lead changes before halftime, but the Lady Leafs lost the lead for good with 8:52 left in the half. Goshen headed to the locker room down only 28-22, despite an overall cold shooting half in which they were just over 29 percent from the floor and 0 for 6 from beyond the three-point line.
Indiana Wesleyan came out aggressively in the second half and ran their lead to as many as 20 points midway through the half, but the Lady Leafs were able to battle back. Led by Erica Yost and Cassie Grieves, both seniors, who chipped in a game-high sixteen points each, the Lady Leafs cut the Bobcats lead to only eight with about ten minutes left to play in the game. But the deficit proved too much to overcome and the Cats held off any chances of a Leafs comeback.
Coach Steve Wiktorowski was pleased overall with his team’s performance and thought they were much more competitive than in their first meeting with the Bobcats in December. But he also noted that giving up second chance shots and not taking care of the ball was what really hurt the Leafs in the end.
“We had a few too many turnovers,” he said. He added, “I thought for a good 30 plus minutes we were pretty even with them.”
The loss drops the Lady Leafs to 6-18 overall and 2-8 in the MCC, while Indiana Wesleyan improves to 20-3 and 9-1. The Leafs will be in action next when conference rival Bethel College comes to visit on Feb. 2.
