MISHAWAKA – Grace College’s men’s basketball team picked up one of its biggest wins of the season with a 96-83 upset on the road of No. 18 Bethel College Tuesday. The Lancers now own sole possession of second place in the Crossroads League with one game remaining in the regular season. Grace, which trails league leader Indiana Wesleyan by one game, will hope to clinch no worse than No. 2 seed for the conference tournament when it hosts Taylor Saturday at 3 p.m. Five players scored in double figures for the Lancers (20-8; 12-5 CL). Elliot Smith hit several momentum-shifting shots for Grace, drilling 6 of 9 attempts from the arc en route to a game-high 20 points. Bruce Grimm Jr. continued to cement his status as the top point guard in the league with 18 points, eight assists and no turnovers. As a team, the Lancers tied a season-low with four turnovers and made a season-best 13 treys. With the score knotted at 19-19 in the first half, Niko Read came off the bench to propel the Lancers with back-to-back treys in a span of just 21 seconds of action. Grace did not trail after Read’s six-point swing. Grace used a 7-0 run late in the first half to open up a double-digit advantage, but the Pilots (20-9; 11-6 CL) countered with a 9-1 swing of their own. Lee Ross then buried a three-pointer on Grace’s final possession of the first half to lift the Lancers to a 44-36 lead at the break. Read provided another boost for the Lancers when he connected on a three-pointer and was fouled, handing Grace a commanding 59-44 lead with 13:18 to play. Bethel seemed up for the challenge, however, and eventually cut the gap to six at 77-71 with 4:58 remaining. But Smith, who made a trio of treys in three minutes, sank his final three-pointer on Grace’s ensuing possession to stem Bethel’s momentum. Grimm buried another triple on Grace’s next play, and the Lancers connected on nine free throws over the final 2:52 to secure the win. Karl Columbus produced 18 points and five rebounds, and Greg Miller added 16 points and eight boards for the Lancers. Tannan Peters led all players with 10 rebounds to go along with four assists, Read made 3 of 4 from beyond the arc for 10 points, and Brandon Vanderhegghen chipped in with five points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals. The Pilots made 50 percent of their field goals, but the Lancers helped themselves by making 27 of 37 from the foul line. Grace’s 96 points was the team’s highest offensive output since its 100-97 win over Bethel on Feb. 14, 2012. Ryan Benner and Zach Miller scored 17 points each for Bethel, while Matt Schauss finished with 15 points and Michael Mislan chipped in with 12.
