WINONA LAKE – Because of Tuesday's weather conditions, Indiana Wesleyan's men's basketball team arrived late to the Orthopaedic Capital Center. For whatever reason, Grace College's offense never showed up. In a matchup of top-five teams in the NAIA Division II national poll, the fourth-ranked Lancers were just 15 of 54 from the field and fell 65-55 to the top-ranked Wildcats. "You're not gonna beat the No. 1 team in the country when you shoot 28 percent," said Grace College coach Jim Kessler. "We missed layups. We missed open threes. We had plenty of opportunities, we just didn't move the ball well enough, and we didn't create good spacing." The loss dropped the Lancers to 7-1 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-Central College Conference standings, while the Wildcats improved to 8-0 and 2-0. Grace has lost its last six contests with Indiana Wesleyan. Despite their shooting woes Tuesday night, however, the Lancers were never out of the game. The Wildcats, who were just 22 of 55 from the field and 13 of 23 from the free throw line, clung to a 48-47 lead with 5:26 remaining. Indiana Wesleyan only led 61-55 with 35 seconds to play, but iced the game by hitting charity tosses down the stretch. On top of their offensive struggles, the Lancers were outrebounded 43-29. "If you look at the stats, it tells the story," said Kessler. "We shoot 15 of 54. We miss almost 40 shots, and we only got seven offensive rebounds. You can't win like that." Indiana Wesleyan ripped down 13 offensive rebounds, six of them by Patrick Hopkins. It was on the glass where Hopkins did his damage. The 6-foo-7 junior came in averaging 16 points and 10 rebounds per game. He finished with eight points on 4-of-10 shooting. George Jones IV was also averaging 16 points per game. The Lancers held him to nine points, as the 6-3 junior was 2 of 8 overall, 2 of 3 from the arc, and 3 of 4 at the free throw line. "We did a pretty good job on Hopkins," said Kessler. "We just couldn't keep them off the boards. We held their two leading scores to 17 points combined. We did great there, we just couldn't shoot the ball, and we got hurt on the boards." Sophomore Jordan Weidner and senior Derrick Troyer led the Wildcats with 17 and 15 points, respectively. "That's a team that could score 100," Kessler said of Indiana Wesleyan. "Really we held them to about 55, they shot a lot of free throws there at the end. I was pleased with that. We just struggled offensively." The Lancers, who entered the game fifth in the nation in field goal percentage at nearly 52 percent and 10th in scoring at nearly 86 points per game, got 20 points from junior Bruce Grimm Jr. Senior Duke Johnson added nine points, while senior Dayton Merrell and sophomre Greg Miller chipped in with seven points each. Grace will be in action again Saturday at MCC rival Huntington. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. The Lancers and Wildcats will square off again Jan. 24 at Lucky Arena in Marion.
INDIANA WESLEYAN 65, GRACE COLLEGE 55 IW 33 32 – 65 GC 26 29 – 55 IW – Derrrick Troyer 6-11 2-2 15, Aaron Martin 2-6 0-0 6, Patrick Hopkins 4-10 0-6 8, George Jones IV 2-8 3-4 9, Jordan Weidner 5-10 5-6 17, David Peters 1-1 0-0 3, Taylor Schoen 0-4 2-3 2, D.J. Bettinger 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Greathouse 0-1 0-0 0, Parker Stouffer 2-3 1-2 5, Zac VanDeWater 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-55 13-23 65. Grace – Dayton Merrell 1-4 5-5 7, Dennis Williams 1-2 1-1 3, Duke Johnson 3-7 3-4 9, Jacob Peattie 2-7 0-0 5, Bruce Grimm Jr. 5-18 7-8 20, Lee Ross 0-2 0-0 0, Elliot Smith 1-6 0-0 3, Greg Miller 2-5 3-3 7, Tannan Peters 0-0 1-2 1, Karl Columbus 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 15-54 20-24 55. Three-point goals – IWU 8 (Martin 2, Jones 2, Weidner 2, Troyer, Peters), Grace 5 (Grimm 3, Peattie, Smith); Rebounds – IWU 43 (Hopkins 13), Grace 29 (Johnson 6); Turnovers - IWU 12, Grace 12; Fouls – IWU 21, Grace 21; Fouled out – none; Records: IWU 8-0 (2-0 MCC), Grace 7-1 (1-1 MCC)
