Athletes are trained to have short-term memories.
No one displayed that better this week than the University of Toledo’s Khera Goss.
Last Saturday wasn’t the high point of her career. The fourth-year guard was the primary defender trying to interrupt Chellia Watson’s season-long torrid pace. It didn’t work.
The Buffalo guard — the nation’s fifth-leading scorer — had 47 points, the most in Savage Arena history. But who hit the game-winning shot? Goss.
And, instead of allowing Watson’s historic performance to strip away her confidence, Goss practiced hard on Monday and Tuesday, helped limit Akron to 41 percent shooting in a lopsided win on Wednesday, and then topped it off by pestering Bowling Green’s Amy Velasco and Paige Kohler on Saturday.
“Khera does all the dirty work,” UT point guard Sophia Wiard said. “She guards the best player every single night, every single game. It never changes. She’s always on their No. 1. [Quinesha Lockett’s] not having to score a bunch of points and play defense on their best player. Same for me.”
In the Rockets’ 82-70 win over the Falcons, Goss assisted in holding Velasco to eight points, five below her season average, and she fouled out for just the second time in 90 career games. Velasco only played 19 minutes, the lowest in her last 34 games.
Kohler had 22 points, but it came via 20 field-goal attempts. Kohler and Velasco had combined for three turnovers and were minus-17.
Goss’ assignments on Wednesday finished a combined 5 of 14 with 15 points, four rebounds, four assists, three turnovers, and a plus-minus of minus-23.
“I do it for my other teammates, so Q and Soph have the legs to score,” Goss said. “In high school, I knew what it felt like to guard the best player and score 20 points. That is hard. Even when Q was out and I had to step up offensively, that’s hard. I wouldn’t want to put them in that position. Offensively, they’re amazing. I don’t mind taking pride in that.”
Wiard (18 points) and Lockett (15 points) were Toledo’s leading scorers on Saturday, combining to make 12 of 20 shot attempts.
Goss is a two-time All-Mid-American Conference defensive team selection. Targeting that area of the game is nothing new for her. She has two sisters who played Division I college hoops, and playing good defense runs in the family.
“We’re all good defenders,” the Indianapolis native said. “It’s something my dad taught us when we were young. I was always pressing in high school. It’s always been in me.”
Her Mona Lisa came during the 2021-22 season when Buffalo’s Dyaisha Fair had 14 points on 4-of-20 shooting, including 0 for 4 from beyond the arc. Fair, who transferred to Syracuse, averaged 23.4 points per game that season and was a first-team All-MAC selection.
Fair is the 15th-leading scorer this season, with 20.9 points per game.
“I love Khera Goss,” Toledo coach Tricia Cullop said. “[She has] heart and desire to play defense and do things that don’t always get accolades but yet she brings it every single game.”
If you ask family, friends, or teammates, Goss said they would probably tell you that she’s naturally aggressive. She disagrees, though. Instincts, quick hands, and lateral quickness are her most reliable weapons.
She enters each game with the goal of holding whoever she’s guarding to their lowest-scoring output of the season. The task is tiresome — physically and mentally. Goss is exhausted after games, and recovers by stretching and taking an ice bath.
“She’s mentally tough,” Cullop said.
Don’t sleep on her offense. She had the difference-making shot against Buffalo and, on Saturday, Goss had a fourth quarter and-1 when BG got within seven. She finished with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting with a career-high six assists, a number she matched on Wednesday at Akron.
Goss was a team-best-tying plus-16 on Saturday.
In 2023-24, she is averaging a career-high 8.3 points and 1.8 assists, despite her lowest shooting percentages.
“Her offense is getting a lot better, and she doesn’t get enough credit for that,” Cullop said. “I do think her defense really energizes everybody else, and her willingness to step up and draw the toughest assignment every single game.”
It’s not always fun. The job is often thankless and unglamorous. And there are nights when you collide with a rare talent like Watson and the answers are absent.
“It’s definitely easier now that I’m older,” Goss said. “If that had happened when I was younger, it definitely would have [bothered me]. You just have to take it game by game. I can’t be thinking about the last game. I have to remember that I am a good defensive player. That was that game, and this is going to be this week, and next week is going to be next week.”
If Goss has any requests, it’s that you don’t forget her offensive highlights.
“Those are what make [the defense] worth it,” she said.
First Published February 4, 2024, 12:56 a.m.
