Grace guard Juaneice Jackson calls out a play at Bethel Tuesday night. Jackson led the Lancers with 16 points in a 77-59 loss to the No. 13 Pilots in the first round of the conference tournament.

MISHAWAKA – Grace College women’s basketball coach Scott Blum exited the Wiekamp Center Tuesday night steamed enough to probably melt the snow that was falling outside on the frozen Bethel College campus.

It wasn’t so much that his Lancers had lost a 77-59 decision to the No. 13 Pilots in first-round action of the Crossroads League Tournament either that had him hot under the collar.

Blum thought that he was disrespected, and rightfully so, by what amounted to an awful officiating crew.

The Grace coach was whistled for a very undeserved second-half technical foul well after the outcome of the game was decided. The technical came as he calmly questioned one of the three officials about the lack of a non-call by another official when a Lancer player was hit driving to the basket.

“When I’m asking questions respectfully, I want respect back from the officials,” said Blum. “That didn’t happen tonight. I told him that I was going to give his partner a zero rating and he gave me the technical. That’s not a technical. She would not even talk to me about the play in question.

“It’s not for me that I’m doing it. It’s for my girls. It’s disappointing for the student-athletes.”

The Pilots used their trademark winning recipe of pressure defense and 3-point shooting to beat the Lancers for the third time this season. Bethel forced Grace into a season-high 32 turnovers by wearing down a thinned-out Lancer roster due to injuries with their stellar depth. The hosts, who improve to 25-6, hit 9-of-24 treys in the win.

Star senior guard Laura Johnson, the Conference Player of the Year, led the Pilots with 21 points including five triples. Kristen Hicks, another of the five senior starters for the Pilots, scored 13 points for a balanced Bethel offense which saw 11 different players score.

Grace standout junior Juaneice Jackson, a first-team, all-conference selection, led the Lancers with 16 points. Senior Jayla Starks scored 12 for the Lancers, who drops to 18-13 with their fourth straight loss. Freshman Kelsey Sule had eight points and freshman Tiffany Petro seven for Grace.

Jayla Starks of Grace looks for room to attack Tuesday night versus Bethel.

Senior Ashlee Ort, a Wawasee High School graduate, had six points and five rebounds for the Pilots.

Bethel, the No. 3 seed in the eight-team tournament, advances to play at No. 2 seed St. Francis Friday night in a semifinal game. St. Francis improved to 28-3 Tuesday night by downing Marian 84-58 in another first-round game.  The Pilots split with St. Francis during the regular season, winning 80-71 at home on Jan. 5 and losing on the road 52-49 on Feb. 2.

In other first-round games Tuesday night, top-seed Indiana Wesleyan defeated Mount Vernon Nazarene 78-52 and Huntington topped Taylor 69-64. IWU (29-2) will host Huntington (18-12) in the other semifinal Friday night.

The conference tournament championship contest is scheduled for Feb. 25 with the higher seeded team serving as host for the title game.

Grace, who was the No. 6 seed in the conference tourney, will return to action by hosting Oakland City Feb. 28 in an NCCAA Regional playoff game. The Lancers, win or lose, already have an automatic berth as the host school to the NCCAA National Championships March 13-16 at the Orthopaedic Capital Center at Grace.

The Lancers, who lost 62-55 at home to Bethel last Wednesday, started out strong Tuesday night with a 10-4 lead at the 15:36 mark. The Pilots got dialed in from distance though and hit five straight 3-pointers, including three by Johnson, for a 15-0 run to take a 19-10 lead.

Bethel used a 28-7 first-half run to take a 32-17 lead on a three-point play by Baysia Cox on a rebound bucket and free throw with 3:11 to play in the opening half. Grace used an 8-2 run to pull within nine points before two big buckets by 6-2 senior Cox made it 38-25 at halftime. Johnson scored 16 points in the opening half to pace the Pilots.

“They live and die with the three and our whole focus was to contest their threes tonight,” Blum said. “We wanted to limit them to less than six threes tonight.  We lost them in transition a couple of times and they hit those five in a row and our heads got down a little bit.”

Bethel kept complete control in the second half. Hicks scored all 13 of her points in the final half as the Pilots let the Lancers no closer than 11 points. The hosts used a 16-3 scoring run to balloon their lead to 24 points at one time.

Allison Kauffman of Grace looks to pass over the defense of Baysia Cox of Bethel Tuesday night.

“It was due to their aggressiveness and the lack of calling fouls,” said Blum about his team’s season-high 32 turnovers. “Yes, we have to be strong with the ball, but you can’t hang on to it all the time when you are being smacked and grabbed.”

“We had effort tonight. We just got behind and things fell apart. We’re limited with our first two point guards out (due to injuries). Bethel has a lot of depth with those eight seniors they have. I thought Kelsey Sule came in tonight and did a good job for us.”

Bethel entered the game Tuesday night shooting 262-of-841 on the season from distance with its five-guard lineup. Johnson led the way with 96 triples on a team with seven players with 10 or more treys for the year.

“We have confidence in everyone shooting the three for us,” said Bethel coach Jody Martinez. “They all have the green light to shoot it. That’s the style we play with five guards. I’m still a believer in the layup first, but we were missing those tonight and hitting the threes. We want to try and shoot over 20 threes every game. Our staff (including Chris Hess) does a great job with our making kids shooters. Not all of them come in here as 3-point shooters.

“Laura sparks us. Everyone knows that and she hit those three in that early run we had.  But, it’s a confidence thing for us. We hit 12 threes Saturday (in a 78-64 win over Marian). It’s contagious and it just gets everyone excited when you hit them.

“But, we’re a defensive-minded team first. We came out tonight and worked on a new defense and not everyone was on the same page for us and Grace took advantage. We got out of that quickly. Our strength is our defensive pressure and that creates transition offense for us. One of the key factors in our success this season is our depth and that was the case again tonight. I confidently can go 11 deep.”

Grace shot 21-of-55 overall from the field, including 5-of-17 on threes. The Lancers had a huge 46-28 rebounding edge thanks to 14 offensive boards. Sophomore Allison Kauffman had nine rebounds and freshman Sarah Feasby seven to pace Grace.

The Pilots, who improved to 13-1 at home, shot 29-of-62 overall from the field. The hosts were just 10-of-18 from the free throw line.