FORT WAYNE - For the second straight year, Grace's game with Manchester College might have helped define the character of a Lancers' team searching for an identity. Although this year, it might just have been what Grace was looking for.

After dropping an 80-49 decision to the Spartans a year ago, the Lancers spiraled downward en route to a 12-20 campaign.

This time around, the Lancers showed what they were made of, rallying from a 17-point halftime deficit to nip the Spartans 74-72 Saturday at the Allen County Memorial Coliseum.

Although playing better this season with a 10-3 mark entering the game, Grace already had a lifeless 60-48 loss to IPFW on Thursday heading into its annual game with Manchester.

The Lancers picked up right where they left off from the IPFW game. Grace came out cold against the Spartans and quickly found itself in a 17-2 hole right off the bat. The Lancers kept it close the remainder of the half, but still trailed 42-25 at the break, where the Grace lockerroom was probably not a pleasant place to be.

"I thought the first half was a continuation of our last game," Grace coach Jim Kessler said. "We didn't come out with any fire or structure. We were pretty intense at halftime about not having fire in their belly.

"All we talked about was being the aggressor," he said. "We had to attack, and if we made mistakes, then we made them. I had to wonder a little about their character. At halftime, it was like a morgue in here. People were dropping their heads. Some people decided they were at least going to go down swinging."

The rally took a little time to get going as the Lancers didn't break the lead down to less than double digits until the 5:15 mark of the game when Bert McLaughlin hit two free throws for the Lancers to cut the lead to 69-61.

But by then, the momentum had clearly shifted. The once-confident and controlled Spartans began to crumble. Manchester led 72-63 when Grace took advantage of some cold shooting by Manchester and got some key offensive rebounds to help its offensive cause to close the game out with an 11-0 run.

When McLaughlin hit two more free throws with 30 seconds left, the Lancers took their only lead of the game 74-72. Manchester had two shots in the last 10 seconds of the game to win it, but missed them both.

The stunned Spartans just stood silent as the Lancers celebrated an almost improbable win.

"They just annihilated us on the offensive boards," Manchester coach Dick Hunsaker said. "They were not a strong offensive rebounding team to date, but they had their way with us on the offensive glass. Their second shots enabled them to fuel many sustained rallies that kept them in the ball game. The game boiled down to our lack of defensive rebounding."

Grace beat Manchester 17-8 in offensive rebound department.

In an almost eerie role reversal, the Lancers and the Spartans seemed to switch places after emerging from their lockerroms at halftime. Grace became the aggressive team, which seemed to be the role held by Manchester in the first 20 minutes of the contest.

"With that kind of lead, they got a little tentative," Kessler said. "I don't think they were quite as aggressive as they were in the beginning. As ineffective we were offensively early, we were as effective late."

After shooting just 31 percent in the first half, the Lancers bounced back with a 57 percent clip in the second half. In contrast, Manchester was 62 percent from the floor in the first half and just 42 in the second. At halftime, the Spartans' Dwayne Ford had 14 points, but scored just six in the second half.

"In the second half, we really wasn't the same player," Hunsaker said. "He was strictly responsible for the first-half spread. We didn't have the same play from him.

"Everything looks wonderful when you are making shots," he said. "Grace still had an aftertaste in their mouth from the IPFW game. They got a bit down. They did a great job of keeping their poise and hanging around. What a great win for them."

Getting four baskets from Ford and watching as the Lancers continually misfired from the field as well as appeared to be nervous playing on the Coliseum floor, the Spartans ran out to the big lead early. The margin reached its biggest level at 38-17 when Chad Berry, who had 19 points for the Spartans, canned a pair of free throws.

Five points from Schmidt helped Grace on a mini-run to cut the lead to 40-25 before Ford nailed a jumper at the buzzer for the 42-25 margin.

To open the second half, the Lancers appeared to have the rally going early, cutting the lead to 46-34 on baskets from Elliott and Gagnon. But the Spartans started getting the ball inside to Berry in an effort to bury the Lancers. Manchester still led 59-42 with 12:39 remaining.

It was 69-55 when Gagnon got two free throws and Caleb Gilmer scored on backdoor layup to make it 69-59. After McLaughlin's free throws cut into the double-digit lead, Gilmer hit the boards and came up with the ball and the layup to make it 69-63.

Chad Berry's brother, Rodney, then got a three-point play to make it 72-63 at the four-minute mark of the game. It would be Manchester's final points of the game.

Seth Gilmer's three-pointer from the left corner forged the 72-72 tie with 1:30 remaining before McLaughlin's free throws won it. Andre Jones missed a shot for the Spartans and after a scramble, the ball went out of bounds off a Grace player. Chanse Young then missed a jumper, and the ensuing scramble used up the remaining time.

Making no excuses for the loss, the Spartans did the play the contest with their leading scorer, Burt Paddock. He was averaging 20.8 points per game, but injured his right hand two games before in the Spartans only other loss of the season in overtime to Huntington College. Paddock wasn't needed in Manchester's last game, a 106-15 win over Emmaus College. His void was felt against the Lancers.

"Not having Paddock was tough, he is a key player for them," Kessler said. "At first they played with a lot of emotion and stepped up and made up for that (the loss of Paddock). But maybe down the stretch, they needed that three-point gun that he carries with him all the time."

Last year against the Spartans, Grace did the exact same thing coming out flat. Only that time, the second half was just a repeat of the first half. This around, the Lancers found the maturity and heart to turn things around in the second half.

Besides finding some character, the Lancers might have also discovered some players that are willing to step up and not only take the big shot, but make it as well. Besides McLaughlin and Darren Gagnon (21 points, 15 rebounds), Grace got big baskets in the second half from the Gilmer brothers - Seth and Caleb, Ben Eliottt, Andy Schmidt, Mike Christner and Brent Damer.

"We had some people who stepped up and hit some big shots," Kessler said. "The two Warsaw boys (Caleb Gilmer and Elliott) like this court. They feel they have the number of this court. Both of those guys played with some character as freshman."

Caleb Gilmer and Elliott played on the same Fort Wayne Coliseum court just eight months earlier, helping Warsaw High School to a semistate championship and a trip to the IHSAA Boys' Basketball Final Four.

Just as this game might have defined the character of the Lancers, Hunsaker is hoping it does not do the same for the Spartans.

"We have two losses, and you have to get tougher from them," Hunsaker said. "You have to win games that you are determined the final minute or two and be sound enough defensively to rebound to pull the game out."

Grace is 11-3, while Manchester drops to 6-2. [[In-content Ad]]