WINONA LAKE – Grace College's men's basketball team rebounded in a big way Wednesday night. Playing the Taylor University Trojans for the second time in four days, the Lancers used a 39-20 advantage on the boards to post a convincing 76-53 win at the Orthopaedic Capital Center. Wednesday's win in the opening round of the Mid-Central College Conference Tournament avenged Saturday's disappointing 82-73 loss at Taylor in the regular-season finale. "We were a different team tonight," said Grace College coach Jim Kessler, whose second-seeded Lancers improved to 22-7 on the season, while No. 7 seed Taylor fell to 20-11. "We used a differenty defensive gameplan," continued Kessler. "I'm proud of the staff for going to work and putting it together. We played better defense, and we controlled the boards. That was huge." Grace, ranked 13th in this week's NAIA Division II national poll, will host third-seeded Marian University Saturday at 3 p.m. in the tournament semifinals. Marian, which swept the Lancers this season in the home-and-away series, beat No. 6 seed Spring Arbor University 72-52 Wednesday. In other MCC quarterfinal games, No. 1 seed Indiana Wesleyan defeated eighth-seeded Goshen College 74-66, and No. 4 seed St. Francis escaped with a 67-66 win over fifth-seeded Huntington University. Indiana Wesleyan, which shared the regular-season conference championship with Grace, will host St. Francis Saturday at 3 p.m. Saturday's winners will meet in the MCC Tournament final Monday at 7 p.m., with the higher seed serving as the host. "We defended the ball screen differently," said Kessler, whose team gave up a number of wide-open shots in Saturday's nine-point loss at Taylor. "We had stronger help-side defense, and we were able to disrupt their rhythm. Taylor is a big rhythm team, and we disrupted their flow." Saturday, the Trojans shot 63 percent from the field and frustrated Grace with both three-point shooting and easy shots in the lane. Wednesday was a completely different story, as the Trojans made just 36 percent of their shot attempts, and Grace outscored Taylor 50-14 in the paint. Bruce Grimm Jr. led the Lancers with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Elliot Smith scored 12 points and Greg Miller, Duke Johnson and Karl Columbus added 10 points each. Johnson pulled down nine rebounds, while Miller and Columbus grabbed five boards each. Taylor held a 7-4 lead in the opening minutes of the game, but Grace went on an 18-0 run and took control of the contest. The Lancers led 34-25 at halftime, and Taylor got no closer than six points the rest of the way. Grace, which shot 57 percent from the field in the second half compared to Taylor's 29 percent, outscored the Trojans 42-28 after the break. Casey Coons led Taylor with 20 points, while Nate Kasper and Tommy Peller scored eight points each and Josh Riikonen chipped in with seven points.
GRACE 76, TAYLOR 53 Taylor 25 28 – 53 Grace 34 42 – 76 Taylor – Josh Riikonen 1-6 5-7 7, Jake Burkholder 2-2 0-0 4, Kyle Hanaway 0-3 3-4 3, Casey Coons 7-16 0-0 20, Tommy Peller 3-6 2-2 8, Ben Raichel 1-5 0-0 3, Jake Hoffman 0-1 0-0 0, Jesse Coffey 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Kasper 4-9 0-0 8, Ian Dutcher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-50 10-13 53. Grace – Greg Miller 5-9 0-0 10, Duke Johnson 5-10 0-0 10, Jacob Peattie 1-3 0-0 2, Elliot Smith 5-8 0-0 12, Bruce Grimm Jr. 7-13 3-5 19, Lee Ross 0-1 0-0 0, Morgan Michalski 1-1 1-1 3, Niko Read 1-2 0-0 2, Dayton Merrell 1-3 2-3 4, Benjamin Euler 0-0 1-2 1, Tannan Peters 1-1 1-1 3, Karl Columbus 4-7 2-3 10. Totals 31-58 10-15 76. Three-pointers – Taylor 7 (Coons 6, Raichel), Grace 4 (Smith 2, Grimm 2); Rebounds – Taylor 20 (Kasper 7), Grace 39 (Johnson 9, Grimm 8); Turnovers – Taylor 13, Grace 12; Fouls – Taylor 16, Grace 16; Fouled out – Raichel; Records: Taylor 20-11, Grace 22-7
