Bre Griffin demonstrated it best Tuesday night — it’s not how you start that matters, but how you finish.

And thanks to a clutch second-half performance from Griffin Tuesday, Goshen downed Elba in a nail-biter, 56-54.

With the win, the Lady Eagles notch their second-straight win.

“They (Goshen) keep working, they keep fighting,” Goshen head coach Ashley Dammar said. “Usually in games like this, we had a tendency to back off, but they (Goshen) know how to fight now.”

Goshen trailed just once in the first half, falling behind briefly 5-4 early in the first quarter.

Griffin, usually the focal point of the Lady Eagles’ offense, started off the game slow, going scoreless in the first quarter.

In her place, Shamiya Griffin stepped up, scoring four points in the first quarter. Jada Hall also pitched in in the absence of Bre, scoring five points, including one 3-pointer.

Going into the second quarter, Goshen continued to increase their lead, widening their margin of victory by as many as seven.

But just before halftime, Elba threatened the Lady Eagles’ lead.

Behind seven points from A’Jaspin Whitfield, the Tigers made a run, cutting the Goshen lead to 24-21 just before half.

But in the second half, it was the Bre show.

After a slow first two quarters, Bre came out playing inspired basketball in the second half, scoring 24 of her 26 points on the night.

But not to be outdone, Whitfield did all she could to keep the Tigers back in the game.

With each score from Bre, there was Whitfield to match.

And with twelve seconds to go in the game, Whitfield swished a jumper to tie the score at 54-54, the first tie since the game’s first quarter.

On the ensuing inbound pass, Bre was fouled and was awarded two free throws. The eighth-grader sunk both, giving Goshen the lead one more time.

With five seconds to go, Bre added an exclamation point to her performance, swatting an Elba shot attempt to end the game.

“She (Bre) rises to the occasion,” Damar said. “She is one of those special players that comes around once every five or six years.”

Whitfield finished the game with 32 points.