Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WINONA LAKE - While their bus arrived at Grace College a half-hour late Saturday, it was as if the East-West University Phantoms never really showed up.
The Grace College men's basketball team hosted the Phantoms Saturday afternoon for homecoming and had little trouble in beating them 100-59 in front of a large crowd of fans, students and alumni at Lancer Gym that included homecoming king Clint Johnson of Warsaw and queen Kristina Freel of Osceola.
"We have a pretty good shooting team," said 28th-year Grace coach Jim Kessler, whose Lancers improved to 2-0 on the season with the 41-point win. "This team has the knack for finding the open guy."
Kessler, who picked up his 490th coaching win Saturday, saying his team was loaded with good shooters and could find the open man seemed like an understatement after Saturday's thrashing of the Phantoms.
The Lancers, who led by 18 just eight minutes into the game when 6-foot-7 freshman and Jimtown High School product Kyle Johnson scored two of his nine points, shot 38 of 61 (62.3 percent) from the field for the game.
In the second half, with the outcome well deciced by that point, the Lancers shot 20 of 28 from the field.
The Lancers tallied 22 assists in the win, while the Phantoms, who shot 22 of 70 (31.4 percent) from the field had just two assists and appeared to be - at least in the box score - a one-man team.
Kenneth Nelson was 11 of 23 from the field for East-West and score 25 points. The rest of the team was a combined 11 of 47 for 24 points.
Grace, on the other hand, was more balanced from top to bottom and had eight players score at least eight points.
Senior Joe Saunders came off the bench to shoot 11 of 13 from the field and led the Lancers with 23 points, while classmate Andrew Kipsey was 8 of 11 from the field and scored 19 points.
Marcus Moore, the only freshman in the starting lineup, finished the game 7 of 9 from the field and scored 17 points, the same number of points he scored in Wednesday's season-opening win over Judson College.
"We need to keep gaining confidence in each other, and we were able to do that," said Kessler. "We were able to play a lot of different players and see what some combinations looked like. We got to look at some different lineups."
Odarius Temple scored six for East-West, an inner-city university in Chicago, while Jason Barham and Randy Ratcliff added five points each in the loss.
Complimenting Saunders, Kipsey and Marcus Moore, who alone matched the 59 points the Phantoms scored, were Kyle Johnson with nine and Scott Moore, Tim Bailey and Davin Scott with eight each.
Scott, a Warsaw Community High School graduate, came off the bench and scored Grace's final eight points. His final two points came from the free throw line with 32 seconds remaining, sending the "Grace Crazies", the nickname of the college's student cheering section, into celebration when the second attempt went through the net and the scoreboard showed 100 points for the hosts.
In a 40-minute game that was a blowout eight minutes in, the only scare the Lancers got was when freshman Scott Moore went up in the air with East-West's Nelson and came down and hit his head on the floor.
He sat out the rest of the game with a slight concussion. While not playing, he sat on the bench and acted as a coach, calling out instructions to his twin brother and teammates.
The Lancers are now 2-0 on the season and compete in the Geneva Tournament Friday and Saturday.
GRACE 100, EAST-WEST 59
East-West 26 33 - 59
Grace 45 55 - 100
East-West - Shaw 0-5, 0-1 0, Nelson 11-23, 1-3 25, Brown 1-4 0-2 2, Hawkins 0-1 0-0 0, Robinson 0-1 4-4 4, Barham 2-9 0-0 5, Jones 2-6 0-0 4, Francis 1-4 1-4 4, Riggs 0-2 4-4 4, Ratliff 2-10 1-2 5, Crowe 0-0 0-0 0, Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0, Temple 3-4 0-0 6, Mack 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-70 11-20 59.
Grace - Stuckmeyer 1-3 2-3 4, Ritter 0-3 0-0 0, S. Hamstra 0-1 0-0 0, M. Moore 7-9 2-2 17, Richmond 1-2 0-0 3, S. Moore 3-4 0-0 8, Johnson 3-6 3-4 9, Saunders 11-13 1-4 23, Bailey 2-5 4-5 8, J. Hamstra 0-1 1-2 1, Kipsey 8-11 0-0 19, Scott 2-3 4-5 8. Totals 38-61 17-25 100.
Three-point goals - East West 4 (Nelson 2, Barham 1, Francis 1), Grace 7 (Kipsey 3, S. Moore 2, M. Moore 1, Richmond 1). Rebounds - East-West 36 (Nelson 7), Grace 48 (Johnson 7, Bailey 7). Turnovers - East-West 22, Grace 24. Fouls - East-West 24, Grace 23. Fouled out - none.
