Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WINONA LAKE - The Grace College men's basketball team will have to complete a difficult task this weekend if the Lancers are to win the first Holiday Inn-vitational Friday and Saturday at Lancer Gym.
Three schools will come to Winona Lake with hopes of coming away with two victories and the tournament championship.
Cornerstone College, from Grand Rapids, Mich., is ranked No. 20 in the most recent NAIA Division II National Rankings with a record of 8-1.
The Golden Eagles are outscoring their opponents by 14 points per game and live by the three-point shot. As a team, Cornerstone shoots better than 40 percent on the season from behind the arc. Leading the way is Luke Moord, a junior who played high school ball at Elkhart Baptist. He makes 52 percent of his three-pointers on the season.
St. Xavier, out of Chicago, received nine votes in the most recent NAIA Division I national ranking, which would place them at No. 33 in the country. Although St. Xavier is not a big team with no player taller than 6-foot-7, the squad is very athletic and will pose a threat to Cornerstone in the opening game Friday.
The final school at the tournament is Kendall College, from Evanston, Ill. The Vikings are in just their second year of basketball at the school, but have pushed some teams to the limit. Kendall lost to Mid-Central Conference opponent Indiana Wesleyan by just two points.
However, the Vikings also lost to St. Xavier by 25 points just last week.
Grace head coach Jim Kessler will rely on a fairly inexperienced crew to get the Lancers through the weekend. Kessler has begun to settle on a starting lineup of two sophomores and three freshmen. Ben Tonagel and Dan Scharlach are the two sophomores, and they are averaging more than 10 points per game.
Freshmen Lawrence Burnett, Ryan Bricker and Matt Moore are also getting starting nods. Junior Caleb Gilmer, from Warsaw, has been coming off the bench and giving Kessler solid offensive and defensive play from a sixth-man position. Freshman Scott Trussell, sophomore Steve Frye, senior Brian Christner and sophomore Jeremy Swanson are other players getting minutes off the bench.
Cornerstone and St. Xavier will open the tournament at 6 p.m. Friday night. Grace and Kendall will then follow that game at 8 p.m.
Saturday, the consolation game will take place at 1 p.m. and the championship game will start at approximately 3 p.m.
