Grace Falls In First Round POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. — Briar Cliff University’s Jake Shipley was the Player of the Year in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. Thursday night against the Grace College Lancers, it looked like one of Shipley’s teammates, senior Ben Stitzman, was also deserving of the award. In a first-round game at the NAIA Division II men’s basketball national tournament at College of the Ozarks’ Keeter Gymnasium, Stitzman made 8 of 10 field goals and scored a game-high 18 points, as the 22nd-ranked Briar Cliff Chargers beat the 11th-ranked Lancers 59-56. “If you had told me (Stitzman) would go 8 of 10 and score 18 points, I probably wouldn’t have believed you,” said dejected Grace College coach Jim Kessler, whose team won the Mid-Central College Conference tournament championship for the first time in school history this year, but lost in the first round of the 32-team, single-elimination national tournament for the second-straight year. Briar Cliff improved to 22-10 and will play No. 6 Cardinal Stritch tonight, while the Lancers finished their season with a 24-8 record. Stitzman entered Thursday night’s game averaging just six points per game. Against Grace, he scored eight in the first half, as the Chargers led 34-26 at the intermission and 41-30 early in the second half. The Chargers also got 10 points from senior Eric Rohe, while Shipley added eight and juniors Michael Collison and John Engler chipped in with six points each. Like Stitzman, Rohe averaged six points per contest and played arguably his best game of the season against the Lancers, making 4 of 5 field goals, including a 2-of-2 effort from three-point range. “Defensively, we did a good job on their top two scorers, but they had a couple X factors that were big for them,” said Kessler. Shipley and backcourt mate Taylor Murren were averaging 18 and 12 points per game, respectively. Grace held them to a combined 2-of-19 effort from the field, but couldn’t overcome the performances by Stitzman and Rohe. Senior Duke Johnson led the Lancers with 15 points and seven rebounds, while junior Bruce Grimm Jr. and freshman Karl Columbus scored 10 points each, sophomore Dennis Williams added eight points, sophomore Greg Miller scored seven and junior Elliot Smith finished with six. Grace held just one lead in the game - when a Grimm three-pointer gave the Lancers a 3-0 advantage. Trailing 41-30 early in the second half, Grace climbed right back in the game with a 10-0 run, a spurt that was capped by a bucket by Grimm on an assist from Columbus. The Lancers tied the game at 47-all with 9:50 remaining on an old-fashioned three-point play by Miller. “We were able to get some stops, and we were more aggressive,” Johnson said when asked what enabled Grace to make a run in the second half. Trailing 59-56, the Lancers made a steal with just under 20 seconds to play. After a timeout, Grace had decent looks at the basket, but couldn’t convert. “We made steals and got back in the game,” said Kessler. “We had opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of them.” Briar Cliff finished the game 23 of 55 from the field overall, 6 of 19 from three-point range, and 7 of 8 at the free throw line. The Lancers were 24 of 60 from the field, 3 of 14 from the arc, and 5 of 8 from the charity stripe. The Chargers outrebounded Grace 30-28, including a 20-12 advantage on the boards in the first half. “One of the constants for them is rebounding,” Kessler said of Briar Cliff. “When they rebound well, they win. And in the first half tonight, we got hammered on the boards.” Seven teams from Indiana, including four teams from the MCC, were in the 32-team national tournament field. Just three teams from the Hoosier State, IU-Southeast and MCC teams Marian and St. Francis, were fortunate enough to win their first-round games. The Lancers had high hopes of making a deep run in the national tournament, and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the program’s only NAIA Division II national championship in style. Instead, Thursday marked the final game in the college careers of Dayton Merrell, Jake Peattie, Benjamin Euler and Johnson. “It’s been great for me,” Johnson said when asked what Grace College basketball has meant to him. “From not really being a factor in high school, to Coach (Kessler) giving me an opportunity to play for him. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Yeah, we had our disappointments, but we did some things no other Grace teams were able to do.” The Lancers, who shared the regular season MCC title with Indiana Wesleyan, have played in the NAIA Division II national tournament in four of the past five seasons, but haven’t won a tournament game since advancing to the Elite Eight in 2009. BRIAR CLIFF 59, GRACE 56 BC 34 25 - 59 Gr. 26 30 - 56 Briar Cliff - Taylor Murren 1-6 0-0 3, Eric Rohe 4-5 0-0 10, Jake Shipley 1-13 6-6 8, Ben Stitzman 8-10 0-0 18, Michael Collison 3-4 0-0 6, John Engler 3-4 0-0 6, Brenton Brown 1-7 1-2 4, Zach Otting 1-3 0-0 2, Tim Loan 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 23-55 7-8 59. Grace - Greg Miller 3-11 1-1 7, Duke Johnson 6-12 3-4 15, Jake Peattie 0-1 0-0 0, Elliot Smith 2-6 0-0 6, Bruce Grimm Jr. 4-14 1-1 10, Lee Ross 0-0 0-0 0, Dayton Merrell 0-1 0-0 0, Tannan Peters 0-0 0-0 0, Karl Columbus 5-8 0-0 10, Dennis Williams 4-7 0-0 8. Totals 24-60 5-8 56. Three-pointers - Briar Cliff 6 (Rohe 2, Stitzman 2, Murren, Brown), Grace 3 (Smith 2, Grimm); Rebounds - Briar Cliff 30 (Rohe 7, Collison 7), Grace 28 (Johnson 7); Turnovers - Briar Cliff 9, Grace 10; Fouls - Briar Cliff 13, Grace 6; Fouled out - none; Records: Briar Cliff 22-10, Grace 24-8.
