When the Goshen Gladiators came to Cornwall armed with a state ranking, the young Dragons had the momentum to carry them the distance. With a distracting defense and a near-comeback to highlight its performance, Cornwall can take the 57-50 loss and make it a lesson.

Cornwall clung to Goshen all night, no closer than in the third quarter, when the closeouts and inside defense forced Goshen misses and frenzied passes.

Turnovers, plentiful for Cornwall all game, began to affect the Gladiator attack.

Where the Dragons were outmatched in size, they made up for it with creativity. Towering over the Cornwall defender, Goshen star Jimmy Kelly lofted for a tough basket. Yet Kyle Rose stood strong, taking the charge and the crashing fall without hesitation.

Matt Breheny led the second-half comeback, denying Kelly’s offense and creeping Cornwall closer with a few clutch shots. Breheny finished with 7 points, all in the second half, and a three-pointer to cut the lead to four at the close of the third quarter.

The matchup against the “exceptionally well-coached team” that coach Chris Miller saw on his court presents an opportunity for the Dragons to grow.

“I’m proud of their effort. We are very young, and we just have to learn in this environment to slow down, relax, take care of the ball, and we can accomplish a lot. So I’m very proud of our team tonight,” he said.

The home team had it within two possessions, two minutes left, but turnovers and defensive miscues, Kelly’s aggressive advances, proved costly. Kelly’s 26 points powered the Gladiators to victory.

“We just have to play as hard as possible to compete with a team like that, which we did. We did. We have to do a better job of valuing the basketball for us to be successful,” said Miller.

Oliver Hoyt led Cornwall with 14 points, with 7 straight to start the Dragons’ scorching third quarter. Mohammad Aljamal followed with 12 points, igniting the second-half offensive spark that closed the gap down the stretch.

Where Cornwall’s effort unraveled with every turnover and rushed pass, Miller saw 32 minutes of effort he saw from his team. The underdog turned overachievers knew they had Goshen rattled and, in spite of their own shortcomings, never gave up.

“We really just talked about if you buy in right now into getting better every single game, moving on from those couple of mistakes, then we can accomplish a lot. But it starts tomorrow at practice,” said Miller.