Lancers Pick Up Big Win Over No. 3 Arizona Christian
December 14, 2022 at 11:18 p.m.
Lancers Pick Up Big Win Over No. 3 Arizona Christian
By Josh Neuhart-
The Lancers (12-1) were a physical force in the NAIA Top-3 matchup, shooting 53 percent from the floor compared to 32 percent for the Firestorm (9-2).
Grace swatted 10 shots, held a plus-14 advantage in the rebounding battle and scored 42 points in the paint in an impressive showing.
Jakob Gibbs led all players in scoring with 18 points, adding four assists and three rebounds. His brother Cade Gibbs finished with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting to go along with six boards.
Frankie Davidson was heavily involved with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, and Elijah Malone was on triple-double watch with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 8 blocked shots.
Grace wasted little time getting the lead on Tuesday, feeding Malone for a post finish on the first possession.
The Lancers scored on their first three possessions, all of which came in the paint.
Grace quickly pulled ahead 14-2 after an and-1 by Davidson and a stepback triple from Brycen Graber.
The No. 3-ranked Firestorm had no answer for Grace’s physicality in the first half. Grace scored on a variety of post touches and drives, pushing ahead by as many as 24 in the first half with the score 32-8.
Grace rattled the rims as well in the half, including thunderous dunks from Malone, Davidson and Jakob Gibbs.
In the final seven minutes, the Lancers got a bit careless with the ball. Grace turned the ball over seven times in the closing minutes, giving ACU signs of life.
But the Lancers still led comfortably 40-22 at halftime. Grace shot 52 percent from the floor in the half compared to ACU’s 24 percent. The Firestorm were empty from deep, missing all 17 of their 3-point tries.
Grace turned the ball over 11 times in the half compared to four for ACU, but the Lancers also outrebounded ACU by 12 (31-19).
All eight Lancers who played in the first half scored a point, led by eight points apiece from Davidson and Malone.
Davidson’s offense remained hot to begin the second half, scoring eight of the Lancers’ first 10 points in the second half.
The Firestorm attempted a rally, trimming Grace’s lead to 14, but Davidson’s offense pushed the Lancers’ cushion above 20.
The Firestorm did their best to rally midway into the second half. ACU used a pair of triples to chop the Lancers’ lead down to 12 with 9:00 to play.
Three minutes later, ACU had Grace’s advantage down to 11 at 65-54 with 6:12 remaining.
Jakob Gibbs canned a timely 3-pointer on the next possession to boost Grace’s breathing room.
Grace continued to score freely from that point, including a few more drives by Jakob Gibbs and a triple by Carter Stoltzfus. Cade Gibbs ended Grace’s scoring with a 3-pointer, pushing Grace’s lead to the final 18-point margin of victory.
Stoltzfus hit a pair of 3s for his six points, Ian Scott tallied 4 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds, Jake Wadding had four points and six boards, and Graber added 3 points, 4 boards and 2 assists.
The Lancers will remain in Arizona for another matchup tomorrow night at Park Gilbert.
Grace Stumbles Against Iowa Wesleyan
WINONA LAKE – Grace’s women’s basketball team dropped a hard fought contest 60-56 to Iowa Wesleyan on Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Lancers struggled from the field, shooting just 32 percent for the game. The loss snaps Grace’s record breaking seven game win streak.
The Lady Lancers and the Tigers tried to establish an interior presence early in the contest, with both teams looking to feed the ball into the post. After a successful Karlee Feldman layup, the Lady Lancers held a 8-4 lead.
The Tigers controlled the pace of play late in the quarter and took a 16-14 lead into the second quarter.
Maddie Ryman hit a trifecta and Feldman hit another shot from the paint to give Grace a narrow 21-20 advantage early on in the second frame.
Both squads struggled to keep possession in the middle portion of the quarter as the teams combined for 11 turnovers.
Iowa Wesleyan built a 32-27 lead late, but Grace rattled off five straight points before the intermission. Kate Rulli made a pull up jump shot and Ryman hit a three-point shot to tie the game up at 32 going into the half.
The Tigers hit a 3-point shot to open the third quarter with a 35-32 lead, but it was the biggest lead that either side had in the quarter.
Made shots continued to be hard to find as the teams combined for just two made field goals half way through the quarter.
A Ryman layup seemed to break the seal on the bucket as the final minutes of the quarter turned into a track meet. Grace trailed 46-44 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Tigers opened the final frame on a 6-0 run that ballooned the lead to eight points. A pair of Kaylee Patton free throws ended the scoring drought, but Iowa Wesleyan answered right back.
Iowa Wesleyan had an answer every time Grace tried to cut into the lead as the Tigers maintained their eight-point advantage.
After the Lady Lancers cut the lead down to six points, Ryman hit another trifecta to cut the spread down to 56-53 with two minutes left.
On the Tigers next possession, they converted on one of two of their free throws to push the lead back to four points, but Ryman again hit from range to pull within a single point, but it was as close as Grace could get.
Iowa Wesleyan hit their shots from the charity stripe late to preserve the 60-56 win.
“That was a good team that we just played,” said Grace head coach Dan Davis. “They had a few more easy points than we did and we couldn’t buy a shot today. I think we had a little bit of emotional fatigue from the conference run, and we needed to show a little bit more mental toughness. We are going to have moments like this throughout the season but I know that we can learn lessons from this game that we can apply later in the season.”
Ryman led all players with 23 points and Feldman narrowly missed another double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Grace won the turnover battle 23-15 but was outshot 49 percent to 32 percent.
The Lady Lancers will be back in action on Thursday as they take on St. Xavier at 6 p.m.
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The Lancers (12-1) were a physical force in the NAIA Top-3 matchup, shooting 53 percent from the floor compared to 32 percent for the Firestorm (9-2).
Grace swatted 10 shots, held a plus-14 advantage in the rebounding battle and scored 42 points in the paint in an impressive showing.
Jakob Gibbs led all players in scoring with 18 points, adding four assists and three rebounds. His brother Cade Gibbs finished with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting to go along with six boards.
Frankie Davidson was heavily involved with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, and Elijah Malone was on triple-double watch with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 8 blocked shots.
Grace wasted little time getting the lead on Tuesday, feeding Malone for a post finish on the first possession.
The Lancers scored on their first three possessions, all of which came in the paint.
Grace quickly pulled ahead 14-2 after an and-1 by Davidson and a stepback triple from Brycen Graber.
The No. 3-ranked Firestorm had no answer for Grace’s physicality in the first half. Grace scored on a variety of post touches and drives, pushing ahead by as many as 24 in the first half with the score 32-8.
Grace rattled the rims as well in the half, including thunderous dunks from Malone, Davidson and Jakob Gibbs.
In the final seven minutes, the Lancers got a bit careless with the ball. Grace turned the ball over seven times in the closing minutes, giving ACU signs of life.
But the Lancers still led comfortably 40-22 at halftime. Grace shot 52 percent from the floor in the half compared to ACU’s 24 percent. The Firestorm were empty from deep, missing all 17 of their 3-point tries.
Grace turned the ball over 11 times in the half compared to four for ACU, but the Lancers also outrebounded ACU by 12 (31-19).
All eight Lancers who played in the first half scored a point, led by eight points apiece from Davidson and Malone.
Davidson’s offense remained hot to begin the second half, scoring eight of the Lancers’ first 10 points in the second half.
The Firestorm attempted a rally, trimming Grace’s lead to 14, but Davidson’s offense pushed the Lancers’ cushion above 20.
The Firestorm did their best to rally midway into the second half. ACU used a pair of triples to chop the Lancers’ lead down to 12 with 9:00 to play.
Three minutes later, ACU had Grace’s advantage down to 11 at 65-54 with 6:12 remaining.
Jakob Gibbs canned a timely 3-pointer on the next possession to boost Grace’s breathing room.
Grace continued to score freely from that point, including a few more drives by Jakob Gibbs and a triple by Carter Stoltzfus. Cade Gibbs ended Grace’s scoring with a 3-pointer, pushing Grace’s lead to the final 18-point margin of victory.
Stoltzfus hit a pair of 3s for his six points, Ian Scott tallied 4 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds, Jake Wadding had four points and six boards, and Graber added 3 points, 4 boards and 2 assists.
The Lancers will remain in Arizona for another matchup tomorrow night at Park Gilbert.
Grace Stumbles Against Iowa Wesleyan
WINONA LAKE – Grace’s women’s basketball team dropped a hard fought contest 60-56 to Iowa Wesleyan on Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Lancers struggled from the field, shooting just 32 percent for the game. The loss snaps Grace’s record breaking seven game win streak.
The Lady Lancers and the Tigers tried to establish an interior presence early in the contest, with both teams looking to feed the ball into the post. After a successful Karlee Feldman layup, the Lady Lancers held a 8-4 lead.
The Tigers controlled the pace of play late in the quarter and took a 16-14 lead into the second quarter.
Maddie Ryman hit a trifecta and Feldman hit another shot from the paint to give Grace a narrow 21-20 advantage early on in the second frame.
Both squads struggled to keep possession in the middle portion of the quarter as the teams combined for 11 turnovers.
Iowa Wesleyan built a 32-27 lead late, but Grace rattled off five straight points before the intermission. Kate Rulli made a pull up jump shot and Ryman hit a three-point shot to tie the game up at 32 going into the half.
The Tigers hit a 3-point shot to open the third quarter with a 35-32 lead, but it was the biggest lead that either side had in the quarter.
Made shots continued to be hard to find as the teams combined for just two made field goals half way through the quarter.
A Ryman layup seemed to break the seal on the bucket as the final minutes of the quarter turned into a track meet. Grace trailed 46-44 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Tigers opened the final frame on a 6-0 run that ballooned the lead to eight points. A pair of Kaylee Patton free throws ended the scoring drought, but Iowa Wesleyan answered right back.
Iowa Wesleyan had an answer every time Grace tried to cut into the lead as the Tigers maintained their eight-point advantage.
After the Lady Lancers cut the lead down to six points, Ryman hit another trifecta to cut the spread down to 56-53 with two minutes left.
On the Tigers next possession, they converted on one of two of their free throws to push the lead back to four points, but Ryman again hit from range to pull within a single point, but it was as close as Grace could get.
Iowa Wesleyan hit their shots from the charity stripe late to preserve the 60-56 win.
“That was a good team that we just played,” said Grace head coach Dan Davis. “They had a few more easy points than we did and we couldn’t buy a shot today. I think we had a little bit of emotional fatigue from the conference run, and we needed to show a little bit more mental toughness. We are going to have moments like this throughout the season but I know that we can learn lessons from this game that we can apply later in the season.”
Ryman led all players with 23 points and Feldman narrowly missed another double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Grace won the turnover battle 23-15 but was outshot 49 percent to 32 percent.
The Lady Lancers will be back in action on Thursday as they take on St. Xavier at 6 p.m.
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