WINONA LAKE – With a dominant inside game, Grace College's men's basketball team painted an upset of second-seeded Colorado Christian University Wednesday night in the first round of the NCCAA National Championships. Hosting the eight-team tournament at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital center, the seventh-seeded Lancers had little trouble getting the ball in the basket area, as they outscored the Cougars 40-16 in the paint en route to an 81-71 win. “You couldn't ask for anything more,” said Grace College coach Jim Kessler, whose team overcame an 11-point deficit in the first half to improve to 19-14 on the season. “We did a better job getting the ball inside in the second half. We were able to get the ball inside.” Senior Greg Miller led a quartet of Lancers in double figures, scoring a game-high 24 points, while pulling down five rebounds and dishing out three assists. Sophomore Logan Irwin added 19 points and eight assists, while senior Jared Treadway chipped in with 10 points and 12 rebounds and sophomore Brandon Vanderhegghen finished with 10 points and seven boards. Junior Niko Read and sophomore Caleb Featherston scored nine and seven points, respectively, in the win. “I thought we did a good job attacking their press,” said Kessler, who upped his career win total to 698. “We did a good job getting the ball inside.” The Lancers finished the game 29 of 57 (51 percent) from the field overall, including a 12-of-23 effort in the second half. Most of Grace’s misses came from the arc, where they were 5 of 18. As the Lancers were pounding the ball inside, the Cougars were tossing up shot after shot from the perimeter. Colorado Christian, which fell to 17-14 on the season, finished the game 23 of 55 overall (42 percent) and 11 of 29 from three-point range. The Cougars made just 5 of 16 attempts from the arc in the second half. Junior Michael Brown led Colorado Christian with 14 points, while senior Kyle Weaver and sophomore Joey Trinkle chipped in with 13 and 11 points, respectively, in the 10-point loss. After overcoming an 11-point deficit, Grace led 42-40 at halftime and led by as many as 12 points in the second half. A fastbreak dunk by Featherston brought a large contingent of Grace fans to their feet and put an exclamation point on the win. The Lancers will be in action again tonight at 8:45 p.m. against sixth-seeded Roberts Wesleyan, which upset No. 3 seed Mid-America Christian.
GRACE COLLEGE 81, COLORADO CHRISTIAN 71 CCU 40 31 – 71 Grace 42 39 – 81 CCU – Kyle Weaver 4-11 2-2 13, Michael Brown 3-12 5-6 14, Wayne McCullough 3-6 0-0 8, Joey Trinkle 4-8 3-3 11, Andrew Squiers 3-4 0-1 6, Avery Redmond 2-7 3-4 9, Zach Freeman 1-3 0-0 3, Joel Hegarty 0-1 0-0 0, Jake Vandenbrink 3-3 1-1 7. Totals 23-55 14-17 71. Grace – Logan Irwin 8-11 2-4 19, Caleb Featherston 2-3 3-4 7, Brandon Vanderhegghen 3-9 4-4 10, Greg Miller 8-15 6-7 24, Jared Treadway 5-8 0-0 10, Tre Olive 0-0 0-0 0, Drew Perrin 0-0 0-1 0, Niko Read 2-10 3-4 9, Eric Miller 1-1 0-0 2, Adrian Makolli 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-57 18-24 81. Three-pointers – CCU 11 (Weaver 3, Brown 3, McCullough 2, Redmond 2, Freeman 1), Grace 5 (Read 2, Miller 2, Irwin); Rebounds – CCU 25 (Brown 5, Trinkle 5), Grace 33 (Treadway 12); Turnovers – CCU 11, Grace 10; Assists – CCU 12 (Weaver 4), Grace 16 (Irwin 8); Fouls – CCU 21, Grace 18; Fouled out – none; Records: CCU 17-14, Grace 19-14
