Grace’s Maddie Ryman flies to the basket at Goshen Saturday afternoon. InkFreeNews photo by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

GOSHEN – The age and experience of Goshen trumped the youthful exuberance of Grace in women’s buckets Saturday afternoon. Goshen’s smarts and persistence helped it carry through a 79-67 win in the Crossroads League over the visiting Lady Lancers at Ruth Gunden Gymnasium.

A fast-paced start saw Grace establishing itself in what for much of the past two years has been its identity – get out fast, hit some threes, put on defensive pressure and snowball. An 8-0 start grew to a 20-10 lead after Kyannah Stull hit her third three-pointer of the quarter.

That would be the last time, however, that Grace would see such a lead. In fact, its lead shrunk to just two at the end of the quarter after Mariah Roe got behind the Grace defense and converted at the horn.

With six freshmen in its rotation, including Kenzie McMahon and Kate Rulli in the post, Grace saw its share of mistakes begin to pile up. McMahon was coaxed into her third foul in the second quarter, and later guard Maddie Ryman drew her third. With both on the bench, Goshen flipped around the table, going on a 15-4 run that saw the score sit at 37-24 Leafs.

“We’re still trying to develop an identity,” said Grace College head coach Dan Davis. “Key (Stull) kept us in the game in that first half, it was the Key show. But we got into some foul trouble, making dumb decisions like reaching in on the press, not setting our feet. When we are trying to get going in this crazy start to the season, we have to establish ourselves, and we can’t do that with two starters on the bench in foul trouble in the second quarter. That’s where everything went south.”

Grace would score the final five points of the half on a three from Stull, who ended with 22 points, and a bunny from Rulli at the horn, to trim the lead back down to five. Grace would get within four in the third, but got no closer, the Leafs consistently getting behind the Lancer pressure for easy buckets and backdoor cuts that led to several uncontested baskets.

Janara Flowers and TaNiece Chapman both scored 14 points, Chapman adding 11 rebounds. Graysen Cockerman had 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists and the duo of Keyaira Murff and Sadre’a Rougeau both had 10 points to give Goshen five in double digits in scoring. The Leafs shot 65 percent from the floor in the second half and 52 percent for the game.

Grace, on the other hand, was just 36-percent shooters for the game. Ryman had 11 points and Kamryn Hostetler had 12 points and four assists. Davis, whose team has played just three games since October including the loss at Goshen, finished the game with four freshmen on the court, hoping to see some attitude and adjustment.

“These kids are all learning, but you can’t play the game afraid,” Davis said. “You have to play fearless. You can’t play this game afraid to make mistakes, because that’s when you’ll see a lot of mistakes. I’m perfectly fine seeing mistakes made when you are aggressive, because that play will make up for being timid. A few of the kids in this program are afraid of making mistakes, but we want to put them in positions where they can learn from those mistakes and not feel intimidated on the court.”

Grace (2-3, 0-3 CL) is scheduled to take on Holy Cross at home on Monday in its home opener while Goshen (1-5, 1-2 CL) won’t play again until Dec. 18 against Rio Grande.

Concluded Davis, “It’s going to be a blessing to finally get on our floor and play an actual game. When you open the season with five straight on the road, you lose all these non-conference games and some games we felt like we could have won. You lose momentum. We’re trying to find that, especially with this young team. We have a very good team, a great team I feel, we just have to get there.”