GOSHEN — The Memorial Crimson Charger boys have been looking to expand on their number of contributors, while the Charger girls have been looking to expand on their number of points.

Each team found what it was seeking Friday night inside the Goshen gym, and with it, both clubs continued a string of dominance over their respective Northern Lakes Conference opponents.

Junior Freddie Rhodes — who was making his first career start — netted a career-high 14 points and senior James Hershberger added his best output in nine games with 13 points, to go with a game-high seven rebounds, as the Memorial boys led from midway through the first quarter onward in downing the Redskins 56-52.

Earlier in the varsity doubleheader, junior Khadijah Moore poured in 23 points to match her season high, and senior Paige Newvine tallied a season-high 17 to go with seven assists as the Charger girls topped Goshen 71-57.

Boys

Markese McGuire, Elkhart County’s leading scorer, came through with 21 mostly clutch points, but it was the complementary contributions that helped put Memorial over the top.

“Freddie Rhodes’ energy really helps our team, and both his defense and offense helped us tonight,” said Charger coach Mark Barnhizer of the guard who was playing just his fourth game of the season after suffering a broken wrist, “and James, we kind of seem to go as James goes. If he plays well, we tend to play well, and if he doesn’t ... that kind of puts pressure on the kid, but it seems to be the truth.”

Dimitri Giger and Evan Andersen divided four blocked shots and four steals equally for the winners, who knocked off a team with a winning record for the first time since November.

Memorial, which had lost six of its last seven, improved to 6-8 overall, 2-3 in the NLC, while the Redskins, who had defeated Warsaw and NorthWood in their last two league games, fell to 8-5 and 3-2.

The Chargers improved to 10-0 against Goshen under Barnhizer and beat the Skins for the 12th straight time overall.

“Physically, they moved us wherever they wanted to,” Goshen coach Brian Bechtel said. “The stripped the ball from us inside. We couldn’t get any dribble penetration on them. We were really trying to get the ball inside early, but we couldn’t execute, couldn’t finish plays in there. It was their pressure defense, their physical play and their aggressiveness, and athleticism. We got hurt by all those things tonight.”

Austin Henke led the Redskins with 14 points. Alex Hartsough added a career-high 13. Sam Stegelmann finished with 10 points and six boards.

The Chargers led by as many as 12 in the fourth quarter, and Goshen got no closer than seven in the closing period until Brady Bechtel’s 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Girls

Moore scored 15 of her points in the opening half as Memorial raced out to a 39-21 advantage by intermission.

The Redskins never cut their deficit under double digits in the second half.

“We’ve been waiting for that kind of offense all year,” Charger coach Steve Scott said after his team posted its second-highest point total of the season, and the highest by 10 points in its last 16 games. “Northridge and Warsaw, those were very good teams that we held under 40 in our last two games and still lost. We’ve been playing well on defense, but our offense was finally better tonight, both (half-court) and finally getting points off the turnovers we’ve been forcing.”

Memorial improved to 13-6 and closed league play at 4-3, while Goshen fell to 12-7 and 2-4.

“We just came out ready, distributed the ball well, did what we had to do,” Moore said. “We just gotta distribute the ball and be aggressive.”

“Khadijah is capable of huge things,” Scott said. “I don’t think there’s a better girl athlete in the area. She’s capable of doing this every game, getting a lot of rebounds and scoring 20 points. It’s just getting it in her head.”

Monica Jones added 10 points for the Chargers while Alyssa Wagner had nine points and a game-high four steals.

Kayci Troyer scored a season-high 17 points and hauled in 14 rebounds for the Redskins. Aimee Swihart led the hosts with 19 points. Twelve of those came in the final quarter with Memorial in control.

The Charger girls still have never lost to Goshen in this millennium, winning at least 17 straight meetings.



Memorial 71, Goshen 57

(Girls)

Memorial — Khadijah Moore 9-16 4-5 23, Alyssa Wagner 3-8 3-3 9, Victora Kyle 1-3 0-0 2, Paige Newvine 7-15 3-5 17, Monica Jones 4-10 0-0 10, Jenai Peoples 1-3 2-2 4, Mechayla Thompson 2-4 0-0 4, Kacey Jackson 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 28-60 (.467) 12-15 (.800) 71.

Goshen — Kayci Troyer 6-12 5-6 17, Christina Gipson 2-5 0-0 4, Yadira Cabrales 1-2 0-0 2, Deja Felder 3-13 5-6 12, Aimee Swihart 6-15 6-10 19, Desiray Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Olivia Love 1-4 1-3 3, Jessica DeStefano 0-0 0-0 0 Totals: 19-52 (.365) 17-25 (.680) 57.

Scoring By Quarters

Memorial 20 19 13 19 — 71

Goshen 12 9 17 19 — 57

3-point goals: Memorial (3-14) — Jones 2-5, Moore 1-5; Goshen (2-15) — Swihart 1-7, Felder 1-8.

Rebounds: Memorial (30) — Moore 8, Kyle 5, Newvine 5; Goshen (39) — Troyer 14, Felder 8, Gipson 5.

Assists: Memorial (19) — Newvine 7, Kyle 4; Goshen (11) — Swihart 5.

Steals: Memorial (14) — Wagner 4, Moore 3; Goshen (6) — Gipson 2, Swihart 2.

Turnovers: Memorial 21, Goshen 28.

Fouls: Memorial 20, Goshen 13. Fouled out — none

Officials: Gene Teel, Wes Yoder, Jon Hampton.

Records: Memorial 13-6 (4-3 NLC), Goshen 12-7 (2-4 NLC).

Next: Memorial at Penn Wednesday; Plymouth at Goshen Thursday.

Next: Memorial 41, Goshen 29. Top scorers: Memorial — A.Jones 17, K.Jackson 8; Goshen — S.Rangel 12, M.Miller 8

Memorial 56, Goshen 52

(Boys)

Memorial — Dimitri Giger 1-3 2-2 5, Freddie Rhodes 5-6 3-5 14, Michael O’Toole 0-0 0-0 0, Markese McGuire 8-18 2-4 21, James Hershberger 4-10 4-4 13, Evan Andersen 0-1 1-4 1, Darien Williams 0-1 2-2 2, Spenser Gilbert 0-0 0-0 0, Cameron Maxwell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-39 (.462) 14-21 (.667) 56.

Goshen — Sam Stegelmann 3-8 4-6 10, Austin Woolett 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Henke 5-12 0-0 14, Jesse Good 2-6 1-2 6, Brady Bechtel 2-4 2-2 7, Alex Hartsough 3-5 5-7 13, Deric Haynes 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 16-38 (.421) 12-17 (.706) 52.

Scoring By Quarters

Memorial 15 9 14 18 — 56

Goshen 8 10 12 22 — 52

3-point goals: Memorial (6-14) — McGuire 3-7, Giger 1-1, Rhodes 1-2, Hershberger 1-3; Goshen (8-17) — Henke 4-7, Hartsough 2-4, Bechtel 1-2, Good 1-4.

Rebounds: Memorial (26) — Hershberger 7, McGuire 5; Goshen (21) — Stegelmann 6, Hartsough 4.

Assists: Memorial (8) — McGuire 3; Goshen (9) — Stegelmann 4, Bechtel 3.

Steals: Memorial (9) — Giger 2, Rhodes 2, Hershberger 2, Andersen 2; Goshen (5) — Henke 2.

Turnovers: Memorial 14, Goshen 15.

Fouls: Memorial 16, Goshen 16. Fouled out — none.

Officials: Rich Kraus, Trent Long, Jon Hershberger.

Records: Memorial 6-8 (2-3 NLC), Goshen 8-5 (3-2 NLC).

Next: Memorial at SB Riley, Goshen at Mishawaka, both Tuesday.

JV: Goshen 49, Memorial 34. Top scorers: Goshen — Trevor Weldy 23, Jack Gingerich 9; Memorial — Jalyn Rhodes 9, Freddie Rhodes 8.