Vironnica Drake draws a fouls for Grace in the first quarter against Taylor. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

WINONA LAKE — A dominant third quarter lifted Grace’s women’s basketball team to a 66-58 win over Taylor on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Crossroads League Tournament. It was a historic win for the Lady Lancers as the victory was the program’s first-ever league tournament triumph.

Vironnica Drake poured in a career-high 23 points to go along with 12 rebounds in a sparkling performance. She was a key figure during Grace’s game-changing third quarter.

Drake hit three treys early in the frame, all coming on consecutive possessions for the Lady Lancers. The efforts from Drake were still not giving enough separation between Grace and Taylor as the Trojans actually held a 35-34 lead with 6:30 to play in the third. Grace finally found a rhythm and would go on a 10-1 run to create a deficit and take control of the game.

“We were just patient,” said Grace head coach Scott Blum when asked about his team’s second half turnaround. “We weren’t forcing shots, we took what was given to us and some girls just stepped up and hit some big shots. The third quarter was big for (Veronnica) when she hit three threes there for us. That helped separate us a little more.”

The third quarter belonged to Grace and Drake. Drake dropped-in a beautiful three to beat the final buzzer in the third, her fourth rainmaker of the frame. That clutch shot put Grace up 50-39 going into the final 10 minutes. Drake tallied 12 in the quarter, while Taylor had just 15 as a team.

Drake’s 23 points came on 7-15 shooting from the floor and 4-7 from beyond the arc. Her 12 rebounds were also a career-best mark.

Grace controlled much of the first half thanks to its muscle on the defensive end and effort on the glass. The Lady Lancers out-rebounded Taylor by 11 before halftime, thanks in large part to six offensive boards. Grace won the battle of the boards 45-27.

Kelsie Peterson comes out during starting lineups.

The first quarter started slowly as the sides traded baskets. Taylor seemed to have control, but Haley Richardson hit a shot with just a few second to spare before the end of the the quarter to make the score 12-11 in favor of Taylor. Richardson finished her night with 15 points.

Chloe Pridgen sparked Grace to start the second quarter with four quick points. The Lady Lancers fast-paced attack put Taylor on its heels and lifted Grace to a 19-14 edge, forcing Taylor to burn a timeout. Grace maintained a slight lead, going into the half with a 25-24 advantage. Pridgen had another double-double for Grace, tallying 14 points, 11 boards and two blocks in her 21 minutes of action off the bench.

While Grace made its statement in the third, Taylor managed to trim Grace’s cushion down to seven with 31 seconds remaining in the game, but the Lady Lancers made enough free throws to ice the quarterfinal win.

For Blum, now in his 13th season at the helm for the Lancers, there is always joy in accomplishing a program first.

“I just told the girls about that, actually,” Blum said when asked about the program picking up its first-ever league tournament win. “They had no clue, I didn’t want them to have that extra pressure. Of course, I knew about it, so I was getting a little nervous at the end trying to get that win.

Columbia City grad Aubrey Wright works the ball around the horn for Taylor.

“Over the years we’ve built this program from nothing to being ranked nationally. In the past we were always fifth, sixth or seventh in conference and that makes it hard to get a win against a top four seed on the road. That was back when our top four seeds were almost always ranked so we had to have a big upset. It was always a mountain to climb.”

Blum’s squad this year has had plenty of mountain’s to climb, making Tuesday’s victory all the more enjoyable.

“This team has just fought so hard,” Blum explained. “Through so many injuries and illnesses and so forth, and they still gave us an opportunity to play at home by finishing fourth. We got beat by Taylor the other night on the road 72-49, so to come out and win this game is a credit to what they’ve done all year. They’ve worked hard, they’ve stuck together. I couldn’t be more proud of a team to get that first conference tournament win than this group of girls.”

Taylor was led by Kendall Bradbury’s 18-point effort. Darian Patton finished with eight points for Grace, eight rebounds and five assists while Kelsie Peterson added two points, four rebounds and two assists.

Taylor finishes the season at 13-18 while Grace improves to 15-16 and will travel to take on No. 1 seed Marian (28-3) Friday night in Indianapolis. While the task is a tall one, the consensus from the players seems to be this, “Somebody has to beat Marian, why not us?”

“There won’t be much that I’ll have to say going into that game,” Blum said, smiling. “We’ll have to prepare for how we want to defend but, you can hear the girls still hooping and hollering in the locker room, they want to go to Marian. We want to go play them. They’ve gotten us twice this year. We played pretty well down there last time, though the score may not have shown it. Marian will be ready for us, we got them last year here, so you know that they’ll be ready. We look forward to the challenge.”

Friday’s game tips at 7 p.m.