men’s basketball
February 16, 2012
Men’s basketball team falls below .500 in MCC with road loss to Huntington
Sets up game versus #14 Indiana Wesleyan on Saturday at Gunden The Goshen College men’s basketball team continues to struggle playing away from home. Tuesday night, they dropped their second consecutive road game to Huntington 83-75. This sets up a critical game on Saturday against No. 14 Indiana Wesleyan. The Leafs (18-11, 8-9) played well on the offensive end, but the difference-maker came from the glass and the free-throw line. The Foresters (17-12, 9-8) out-rebounded the Leafs 32-23 and shot 29 free throws to Goshen’s 13, which resulted in 12 more points for Huntington. “The difference-maker was we just didn’t...
February 16, 2012
From baller to scholar: Paul Keim tells his story
Ask most Goshen College students to describe Paul Keim, professor of Bible and religion, in a nutshell, and they will spit back three words with relative ease: beard, languages and basketball. Keim kindly agreed to help distill the latter two for the GC community, not divulging the mystery of the beard itself but perhaps revealing the man behind the beard nonetheless. First of all, Keim can read no fewer than 15 languages. He qualifies his linguistic ability in terms of literacy because a good number of the languages he has mastered are dead languages. However, not all of his languages...
February 9, 2012
Leafs snap seven-game road skid with win at MVNU
Still two back in MCC Race Nov. 30, 2011. That was the last time the Goshen Maple Leafs won on the road, an 88-81 win at the Weikamp Center against Bethel. But with a 97-60 win over Mount Vernon Nazarene University, the Leafs snapped a seven-game skid to put their conference record over .500 and keep Goshen two games back in a wild Mid-Central College Conference race. It was an impressive statistical game for both teams. The Leafs (18-9, 8-7) converted 51.5 percent from the field, knocked down 11 of 21 three-pointers, and out-rebounded the Cougars (9-18, 3-12) 50 to...
February 2, 2012
Leafs end January with 69-66 win over no. 24 Marian
Gilot collects third double-double of the season It has been a long January for the Goshen College Maple Leafs (17-8, 7-6), with struggles shooting the ball, scoring points and winning basketball games. But Tuesday night, Head Coach Gary Chupp and his team knocked off the 24th-ranked Marian Knights (16-8, 7-6) 69-66 on the final day of January to end the month with a record of 4-6. With the reigning National Player of the Week, Knight guard Alex Sylvester, a senior, the Leafs knew they would have their hands full with the back court combination of Sylvester and Aaron Evans. After...
January 26, 2012
No. 21 Maple Leafs knock old rival Bethel 92-84
Leafs inching closer to the top of the MCC It has been quite some time since the Goshen College Maple Leafs (16-7, 6-5) have enjoyed a victory at home over rival Bethel (13-9, 5-6), 7 years to be exact. But on Tuesday night, the Leafs finally got the better of the Pilots with a 92-84 victory. “Feels good to sweep Bethel [this season],” said Gary Chupp, the Leafs’ head coach, breathing a sigh of relief. “They don’t quit…it’s a good win.” Up to the first media timeout with 15:21 left to play in the opening half, the Leafs had converted...
January 19, 2012
Strong first half propels Leafs to 77-62 win over Mount Vernon
Kyle Davis notches season high 14. After a tough road loss this past Saturday to #22 Spring Arbor, head coach Gary Chupp and the Goshen College Maple Leafs (15-6, 5-4) made some changes before their Tuesday night contest against Mount Vernon Nazarene. “We talked a lot after the Spring Arbor game on Saturday; offensively we got to play faster. I think we’re better when we play faster,” said Chupp following the 77-62 win Tuesday night. By playing faster the Leafs were able to settle into their normal offense, converting 50 percent (26-52) from the floor and scoring 29 points off...
January 12, 2012
Maple Leafs rebound with win over Huntington
With six seconds left to play in the ball game, Casey Pratt, a junior point guard, realized the set play was breaking down quickly in front of him. He took two dribbles inside the three-point line and knocked down a long jumper with 4.3 seconds left to seal a 64-62 Goshen College victory. “It was really set up to go to Mathew Martin in the post but my guy just fell down and I didn’t want to go too early because we wanted the last shot, so I waited a little bit and I was like, ‘I’m so wide open; I...
November 30, 2011
Still winning, across the state line
Among the leading scorers for the men’s basketball team this year include first-year Kody Chandler (21.7 points per game), and junior Garner Small (11.3). Small is also the team’s leading rebounder, with 8.3 rebounds per game. Second on that list is another junior, Mike Betcher (7.0). Aside from their success this season, the three players have something else in common: they are all from Schoolcraft, a small town in southwest Michigan. The three players represent one of only two cases in the Mid-Central College Conference where three high school teammates play for the same college team. As it happens, Betcher,...
November 30, 2011
Men’s Basketball Team Receives National Rank for the First Time
The Maple Leafs were honored on Monday for their impeccable five-game winning streak that propelled them to a No. 19 national ranking. This is the first time the men’s basketball team received enough votes to appear in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ top 25 ranking. The Mid-Central College Conference remains one of the strongest conferences, with four teams in the top 25 ranking. Indiana Wesleyan University is ranked first, Grace College is ranked fourth, Saint Francis University is ranked 15th and Goshen College is ranked 19th. “The MCC is brutal and as we start beating up on each other,...
November 2, 2011
Men’s basketball readies for home tournament
The men’s basketball team has a lofty goal, but one head coach Gary Chupp believes the team can achieve. “Our goal is to get to Branson to the national tournament,” Chupp said. “We were close two years ago, finished 32nd in the country and a game out of third place.” Even with the rough patch that the men’s basketball team encountered last year, going 4-12 in conference play and 11-18 overall, Chupp believes that this year’s team can do well in conference play. “The Mid-Central Conference is so strong,” Chupp said. “If you can get to the top half of...
February 24, 2011
Basketball season comes to an end
The men’s and women’s basketball seasons came to an end after last weekend’s games. The men played at Marian University last Saturday but lost the game 62-78. The women played Marian University at home on senior day and also fell short with a 68-88 loss. Both teams were only one game short of making it to the MCC tournament. The season was full of individual winners, though: four Maple Leaf seniors and one sophomore are ending their seasons with honors. On the men’s team three players were recognized by the MCC coaches. Jeremy Pope was named to the All-MCC Honorable...
February 17, 2011
Pope’s big games lift Leafs
Facing a must-win situation, the Leafs got a big boost from senior guard Jeremy Pope as they defeated the Huntington Foresters 88-81 Saturday, Feb. 12. Needing wins to stay in the postseason hunt, Pope led the team with a career high 32 points on 13-21 shooting as the Leafs upset the 19th ranked Foresters in an MCC showdown. The first half saw much back and forth, as the two teams played through six lead changes and three ties before a run by the Leafs helped them enter the half with a 43-35 lead, with 8-13 three-point shooting and 15-32 shooting overall. The lead was all...
February 10, 2011
Men’s basketball team works on busy schedule
The Goshen men’s basketball team has played three games in a span of five days, playing a game every other day starting last Thursday, when the men traveled to Bethel to play an exciting conference game and beat the rival Pilots in overtime. The men played a good game but at the end of the second period, Bethel was able to tie up the score and send the game into overtime, where the Maple Leafs where able to pull ahead to win. Senior Jeremy Pope led the team with an impressive 21 points. Last Saturday, Feb. 5, the men hosted...
January 26, 2011
Men’s Basketball team loses to a strong IWU
The Goshen College men’s basketball team could not manage to break #5-ranked Indiana Wesleyan’s 18-game winning streak. The final score of 72 – 48 was very different from the score of the previous game the Leafs played against the Wild Cats back in November, when the Maple Leafs lost to IWU by merely two points. The first period got off to a slow start for the Maple Leafs, who were only able to score 24 points. The Wildcats went into the second half with a 19 point lead over Goshen, a lead that widened as IWU scored 29 points to...
January 20, 2011
Leafs hold off Knights for first MCC Win
The Maple Leafs turned a strong second half into their first Mid-Central College Conference victory of the season, defeating the visiting Marian University Knights 73-66 on Tuesday night. Down only two points at halftime, the Leafs outscored the Knights 44-35 in the second half on 56 percent shooting, to finish the night at just over 48 percent. The Leafs were led by Geoffry Gilot, a sophomore guard, who scored a team-high of 12 points. Simon Szablicki, a senior, poured in 11 points of his own, while Sean Day, a sophomore forward, scored 10 and collected 10 rebounds. Nate Manning, a...