WINONA LAKE - There was a time earlier this season, said coach Jim Kessler, when Grace College's men's basketball team had to do some soul-searching.
It looks as if the Lancers found something, and now they find themselves winners in seven of their last eight games and in second place in the Mid-Central Conference."There was a time when we weren't playing with confidence or passion, we had to do some soul-searching," said Kessler, whose Lancers beat No. 6 Indiana Wesleyan 85-80 in overtime Saturday at the Orthopaedic Capital Center. "When we play together, we're a pretty good team. We don't have individual stars, but when we play together as a team we're pretty good."
The Lancers, who improved to 15-6 overall and 6-2 in the MCC, had five players score in double figures.
Senior Eric Gaff led the way with 24 points, while junior David Swanson added 21. Senior Michael Wienhorst, junior Kyle Plumlee and sophomore David Henry finished with 10 points each.
Gaff and Swanson combined to score Grace's first eight points of the five-minute overtime session, giving the Lancers a 79-74 lead.
After the Wildcats cut the lead to one, 81-80, Gaff hit a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left in overtime, and then Plumlee accounted for the game's final two points when he converted two free throws with seven seconds remaining.
"This is a great win for us," said Kessler. "It put us in a position to contend for a conference championship. Had we not won, it would have been an uphill battle to stay in the conference race. Indiana Wesleyan is a great team. I think they have all the pieces to win the national tournament. They're a very good team. (Assistant) Coach (Matt) Moore put in 20 hours of watching video on Indiana Wesleyan. He did a great job helping us get ready."
Second-ranked Bethel leads the MCC with a 6-1 record. The Pilots hold a half-game lead on the Lancers, who will travel to Bethel Saturday.
Indiana Wesleyan, now 17-4 overall after its nine-game win streak was snapped by Grace, and Spring Arbor are 5-2 in the MCC, followed by St. Francis (4-3), Goshen (3-4), Huntington (2-5), Taylor (1-6) and Marian (0-7).
Saturday's game at the OCC was basically a battle of big men, as Gaff and Swanson came up big for the Lancers and Landon Adler and Zach Coverstone were instrumental for the Wildcats.
Adler, a 6-foot-9 senior, led Indiana Wesleyan with 25 points and 12 rebounds, while Coverstone, a 6-9 junior, chipped in with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
"Today was definitely a battle of the big guys," said Kessler. "We know we need to go to our big guys, and Indiana Wesleyan has some very talented bigs too. David Swanson scores 21 points and pulls down 14 rebounds for us, that's a pretty good effort. They were focusing on Eric Gaff so much in the first half, and David Swanson played big for us."
Gaff scored just four of his team-high 24 points in the first half, a 20-minute battle that saw the Lancers and Wildcats knotted at 36-all going into the break.
Indiana Wesleyan had two other players score in double figures, as Antonio Murrell chipped in with 19 points and Jon Moon finished the game with 11 points.
Moon had a chance to win the game in regulation for Indiana Wesleyan but missed two free throws with four seconds remaining, and the teams went into overtime knotted at 71-all.
