POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. - In the words of 33rd-year Grace College men's basketball coach Jim Kessler, if you have the horses, you can run in the derby.
Kessler has a stable full of horses, and with four players in double-figure scoring Friday afternoon, they're making another run in the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Tournament.
"When you have four people score in double figures, you're hard to beat," said Kessler, whose Lancers beat the Ottawa University (Kansas) Braves 75-67 to advance to the Elite Eight of the 32-team, single-elimination tournament for the second-straight year. "If you're the other team, you don't know who to guard."
Junior David Swanson led the Lancers in scoring with 18 points. He also pulled down 11 rebounds, as he tallied his 12th double-double of the season.
"We came here to win as many games as we can," said Swanson. "We all have the same goal, to play to the best of our ability and stay within ourselves and play our game."
Senior Michael Wienhorst, fresh off a 20-point performance in Grace's first-round win over Warner Pacific, chipped in 17 points, while senior Eric Gaff scored 15 points and sophomore David Henry finished the game with 13 points.
Gaff, the nation's leading rebounder with an average of 12 per contest, pulled down a game-high 16 boards, as he recorded his 24th double-double of the season.
"It feels great to get another win," said Gaff, who helped the Lancers outrebound the Braves 55-26. "It wasn't all that pretty, but we came out victorious and we get to play again.'
Neither team shot that well, as Grace was 28 of 62 from the field and Ottawa was 25 of 64, but with the eight-point win, Grace improved to 22-10 on the season.
The Lancers will will play fifth-seeded Black Hills State (South Dakota) in the quarterfinals today at 3 p.m. CST. Black Hills State (29-4) beat 12th-seeded Morningside (Iowa) 84-73 Saturday to extend its win streak to 14 games.
With the loss to Grace, Ottawa's season ended with a 19-14 record.
The Braves won three road games in their conference tournament to qualify for the national tournament at Keeter Gymnasium, located on the campus of College of the Ozarks near Branson, Mo.
Ottawa upset fourth-seeded Walsh in its first-round game Thursday, but against the Lancers, the Braves fell behind 5-0 early and trailed the entire game.
Grace led by as many as 13 points, 30-17, in the first half.
Ottawa closed the first half on a 9-0 run and cut the Lancers' advantage to two points three times in the second half, but each time Grace responded and stretched its lead.
One of the more clutch shots in the contest came via Wienhorst, whose three-pointer with 1:46 remaining in the game pushed the Lancers' advantage to five, 71-65.
On the Braves' ensuing possession, Wienhorst deflected an errant pass, and seconds later Henry found himself at the free-throw line, where he converted a pair of charity tosses for a 73-65 lead.
Wienhorst and Gaff are the only senior players on the Lancers' roster, and both are savoring every moment of Grace's tournament success.
"Before every game, I tell myself to enjoy it and have fun,' said Wienhorst. "Every game could be my last. It was great being down here last year, and it's been really fun coming back as a senior. I don't really want the season to end.'
Phil McClintock led Ottawa with a game-high 29 points, while David Birch scored 15 points. No other Ottawa player scored more than five points.
Joining the Lancers in the Elite Eight are fellow Mid-Central Conference schools Bethel and Indiana Wesleyan.
Second-seeded Bethel improved to 32-3 on the season Friday with an 88-68 win over 15th-seeded Indiana Southeast, a victory that gave Pilots coach Mike Lightfoot 600 career wins.
Bethel will square off with Bellevue (Nebraska) today at 1 p.m. CST.
Sixth-seeded Indiana Wesleyan improved to 29-6 Friday with an 83-61 win over Evergreen State (Washington).
Indiana Wesleyan will play College of the Ozarks at 6 p.m. CST today.
"That's a tribute to our conference," Kessler said of three MCC schools still in the hunt for a national title. "The MCC is a really tough conference. There's two other teams in the conference (Spring Arbor and Huntington) that won 20 games this season and another (Goshen) that won 17 games. Our conference schedule prepared us to play down here in the national tournament."
