WINONA LAKE – Jim Kessler was happy with the way his Grace College men's basketball team started Saturday's Crossroads League game at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center. The veteran coach, however, wasn't so pleased with how the Lancers’ finished the contest, as their three-game win streak came to an end with a 72-57 loss to the ninth-ranked St. Francis Cougars. “We just weren't very good today,” said Kessler, whose team fell to 13-5 overall and 3-3 in the league standings. The Lancers scored the game's first nine points, and they made five of their first seven attempts from the field. But like the temperature outside, the Lancers’ offense became more frigid as the game went on. Grace finished the game 25 of 54 from the field overall (46 percent), making just 3 of 18 three-point attempts, and only converted 4 of 13 free throw attempts. Senior center Dennis Williams was 7 of 7 from the floor and scored 15 points for the Lancers. The rest of the Lancers combined to go 18 of 47. “We just didn't play well,” said Kessler. “You can't play like that and win games in this league. When your shots aren't falling, you can always play defense, and we didn't do that well either. We take pride in our defense, and we couldn't get stops when we needed them. We needed to get some stops in the second half, and then turn it into points. We couldn't do that.” The Cougars, who improved to 14-4 overall and 4-2 in league play, responded to Grace's quick 9-0 start by scoring eight straigh points of their own. St. Francis tied the game at 17-17, and then took its first lead of the game, 20-17, with 6:28 left in the first half when sophomore Kegan Comer hit a three-pointer. The Cougars led 30-28 at halftime after making just 9 of 26 attempts from the field over the first 20 minutes of play. They were able to stretch their lead in the second half by making 14 of 19 shots from the field. As a result of their win, the Cougars remain just one game behind top-ranked Indiana Wesleyan in the league standings. Wesleyan is 5-1 in conference play, followed by St. Francis and Goshen at 4-2, while No. 7 Bethel, No. 23 Marian, Grace and Mt. Vernon Nazarene are 3-3. Huntington and Taylor are 2-4 in the Crossroads League, while Spring Arbor is 1-5. When the game started Saturday, the Lancers were in a five-way tie for second place and just one game behind league-leader Wesleyan. “You have to defend your house, and we didn't do that,” said Kessler. “We had a great opportunity today to help seperate ourselves from a couple teams, and we didn't take care of business.” Junior Brandon Vanderhegghen led the Lancers with 16 points, while Williams finished with 15 and freshman Chad Hoffer scored 10 points off the bench. For St. Francis, junior Austin Fox scored a game-high 18 points, while junior Kyle Sovine, freshman Bryce Lienhoop and Comer scored 13 points each. Grace is in action again Tuesday at Marian, and then travels to Huntington Saturday.
ST. FRANCIS 72, GRACE COLLEGE 57 SF 30 42 – 72 Gra 28 29 – 57 St. Francis – Austin Fox 7-12 4-8 18, Kyle Sovine 4-6 5-8 13, Kegan Comer 4-7 2-2 13, Seth Small 1-3 4-4 7, Josh Hogan 1-5 0-0 2, Evan Henry1-4 3-4 6, Alex Pritchett 0-1 0-0 0, Bryce Linehoop 5-7 3-3 13, Jordan Hahn 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-45 21-29 72. Grace – Kyle Fillman 0-3 0-0 0, Dennis Williams 7-7 1-2 15, Logan Irwin 3-9 1-8 8, Niko Read 1-9 0-0 2, Brandon Vanderhegghen 6-11 2-2 16, Eric Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Featherston 0-0 0-0 0, Chad Hoffer 5-10 0-1 10, Erik Bowen 1-2 0-0 2, Adrian Makolli 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 25-54 4-13 57. Three-pionters – St. Francis 5 (Comer 3, Small, Henry), Grace 3 (Vanderhegghen 2, Irwin); Rebounds – St. Francis 36 (Fox 9), Grace 24 (Fillman 5); Turnovers – St. Francis 13, Grace 11; Fouls – St. Francis 18, Grace 23; Fouled out – Hoffer; Technical foul – Williams; Records: St. Francis 14-4 (4-2 CL), Grace 13-5 (3-3 CL)
