GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College men’s and women’s basketball programs fell to the University of St. Francis last Saturday in a double-header at home as the women lost 74-50 while the men fell 87-74 on Professor and Staff Appreciation Day.

Festivities started off rocky as the wrong ball was used for the first two and a half minutes, and neither team scored during that period. At the 7:21 mark, Kara Gerka scored the first basket for St. Francis (16-10, 8-6 Crossroads League), en route to a game-high 22 points. St. Francis led 18-9 after one quarter. St. Francis went into the break leading 39-22 on the backs of Gerka and Lindley Kistler, who combined for 23 points.

Goshen (1-25, 0-14 CL) came out of the break hot on a 5-0 run, but could not slow down the Cougar attack, giving up 17 points to close the quarter at 56-37. The women shot a tick below their season averages on the day with 33 percent (20-for-60) from the field, 25 percent (4-for-16) from three and 55 percent (6-for-11) from the free throw line.

Haley Archibeque, a junior, and Carley O’Neal, a senior, led the Leafs in the scoring column with nine apiece. Claire Rauck and Makayla Collier, first-years, followed with seven each.

After an intermission of recognizing the professors and staff that each player chose to appreciate, the men tipped off. The scoring started quickly as St. Francis (22-5, 12-3 CL) struck first with a three-pointer just 19 seconds into the game. The first half was back-and-forth throughout, with no team leading by more than nine points ending on a 9-0 run and 35-35 deadlock after 20 minutes of play. 

The second half opened with the Cougars starting where they left off, scoring eight of the first 10 points. Devin Heath-Granger, a senior, snapped the Goshen (11-16, 4-11 CL) cold streak, going on a personal 7-0 run and crossing the 1,000-point mark in his career with 9:54 remaining.

Heath-Granger’s feat makes the class of 2018 the only class in school history with four 1,000-point scorers, as Heath-Granger joined Conner Funkhouser, Christian Grider and Billy Geschke.

Heath-Granger led the Leafs in scoring on the afternoon with 19 joined in double-digits by Grider, Geschke and Funkhouser with 16, 13 and 12 respectively. Goshen shot 44 percent (28-65) from the field, 36 percent (8-22) from three and 67 percent (10-15) from the free throw line.

Following the men’s Tuesday victory over Mount Vernon Nazarene University, coach Jon Tropf and his squad head to Taylor University to keep their CL tournament hopes alive. The Goshen women have mathematically been eliminated from post-season contention as they host MVNU on Wednesday.

They will join the men in Upland on Saturday to square off with the Trojans. Tip-off against TU is slated to begin at 1 p.m. for the women, followed by the men at 3 p.m.