Warsaw grad Jaylen Reese nails a three during Grace’s opening round win over AIC. InkFreeNews photo by Nick Goralczyk

By Nick Goralczyk
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — We heard you, Grace College, good and loud.

The Lancers men’s basketball team began its pursuit of an NCCAA championship Wednesday night and made quite a statement in the opening round of the annual tournament. The Lancers blasted SAGU American Indian College 97-63 to advance to Thursday’s semifinal round.

“I don’t care if we’re playing checkers, ping pong, bowling, I’m going to try and beat you. That’s the way our teams are going to play,” explained Grace head coach Scott Moore when asked about the importance of this tournament. “I don’t care what tournament we’re in and this one is a big deal anyway. (Grace) has never won this. I’ve played in this and had a chance to win this and we couldn’t get it done.

“The motivation is there for us, playing at home just makes it special. I don’t care if we’re in Branson, MO, Frankfort, KY, or wherever, we’re trying to win.”

The message was received by all present at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center as the top-seeded Lancers forced 10 turnovers, dominated the boards and the paint to earn the 34-point blowout win. The other three mens games on Wednesday finished with a combined margin of victory of 21 points.

Grace pulled down 50 rebounds, more than doubling up on AIC’s 23 boards. Going along with that theme was Grace’s dominance in the paint as 56 of the team’s 97 points came from inside. AIC tallied just 18 points in the paint in the contest. Jakob Gibbs and Frankie Davidson each pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.

Grace struggled to get separation in the first half, leading 48-36 at the break and shooting just 50 percent from the floor. But the Lancers were able to pull away in the second half, due in part to a 61 percent shooting effort in the final 20 minutes.

Aiding Grace along the way was its considerable depth. The Lancers bench outscored AIC’s reserves 26-8. Even more impressive was the fact that every Lancer that dressed saw the floor and scored in Wednesday’s game. All 10 of them.

“It’s huge. It’s tournament, you know you have to get up and do it again the next day,” Moore stated. “Our expectation is when you come in, you practice every day. You guard those guys every day. You know our stuff. I understand not everyone plays 35 minutes every night but the expectation doesn’t change when you sub in. You have to take care of business.

“I was proud of those guys. I thought Cody (Homes) and Drew (Beck) both were real calm when they got in. And there can be nerves. You’re in a tournament, you’ve got fans all of a sudden. But they’ve been here, they’ve proven they can play. I was proud of them.”

Jake Wadding shot 10-16 from the floor to lead all scorers with 22 points. Davidson scored 17 for the Lancers while Gibbs tallied 15. Haden Deaton (10 points) and Elijah Malone (7) rounded out the scoring for Grace’s starting five. Matt Jennings came off the bench to score 14 point and had a game-high eight assists. Eddie Gill (4), Drew Beck (3), Jaylen Reese (3) and Cody Holmes (2) finished out the scorebook for the Lancers.

Angel Villa and Richard Serrano scored 21 and 20 points, respectively to lead the Warriors.

Up next for Grace will be No. 4 seed University of Northwestern. The Eagles edged out No. 5 Lancaster Bible College 67-65 in the night cap of Wednesday’s games. Northwestern and Grace will tip at 8:45 p.m. Thursday evening. Earlier in the day No. 3 Ottawa defeated No. 6 Southwestern 79-67 and No. 7 Alice Lloyd upset No. 2 Columbia International 79-72.