The Goshen College men’s basketball team hosted Indiana Wesleyan University on Tuesday night, and for the first 25 minutes of play it looked like the Maple Leafs would upset the second-ranked team in the country. A late Wildcat run however was enough to give Indiana Wesleyan a 78-75 win.
Kody Chandler, a junior, gave Goshen the lead just 39 seconds into the game, a lead that the Leafs would not relinquish in the first half as they took a 43-34 lead into the halftime break. The Wildcats came out fast in the second half and quickly closed the gap as the two teams battled throughout a heavily contested second half. Despite leading the majority of the night, Goshen fell behind for good with 3:29 to play as late baskets by Chandler and Kevin Phillips, a senior, weren’t enough for the Maple Leafs to catch the Wildcats.Offensively, the Leafs were led by Chandler, 18 points, and Conner Funkhouser, a junior, who contributed 11 points off the bench. Phillips, Xavier Newson, a senior, and Billy Geschke, a senior, each chipped in with 9 points apiece. Phillips also grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds with Newson, Devin Heath-Granger, a junior, and Christian Grider, a junior, each collecting 4 rebounds of their own, with Heath-Granger recording a team-high 4 assists. Phillips, Grider, and Dominique Cartier, a senior, each had one of Goshen’s 3 blocks.
With the loss the Maple Leafs’ record falls to 5-3 (1-1 in conference) on the season. Goshen will be back in action on Saturday when they’ll face another test, this time in the form of the nation’s top-ranked team University of Saint Francis. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. in Goshen’s Gunden Gymnasium.
