WINONA LAKE - That old coaching cliche that says winning ugly is always better than losing pretty sums up the Grace College men's basketball team's victory over visiting Trinity International Friday at the Orthopaedic Capital Center.
"We just didn't play well tonight," said Grace men's coach Jim Kessler, whose Lancers never trailed the Trojans but had to make key plays down the stretch to pull out a 73-65 Homecoming win. "This is a new team. And we had to learn how to win. We struggled at times. We played not to lose, rather than playing to win."The Grace women's team, on the other hand, cruised to a 69-54 win in the first game of the doubleheader as four players scored in double figures for the Lady Lancers, who are now 1-1 on the season.
The Grace men, who improved to 2-0 on the season, held a 17-point lead in the first half but saw their advantage dwindle to one, 61-60, when Andruis Zukauskas hit a pair of free throws for the Trojans with 2:44 remaining in the game.
Lancer senior Michael Wienhorst, a Warsaw Community High School graduate, then hit a pair of charity tosses and assisted teammate Eric Gaff on a basket to push Grace's lead to four, 65-61.
With 18 seconds to play, Grace junior Kyle Plumlee, a transfer from Manchester College who played at Plymouth High School, went for a loose ball, and delivered a no-look pass to Gaff.
Gaff turned the Magic Johnson-esque pass into a monstrous dunk, giving the Lancers a 71-63 lead.
The Trojans scored one more time to cut the deficit to six, and then Wienhorst scored the game's final two points at the free throw line.
"We didn't play very smart and we weren't consistent," said Kessler. "But we did come back when we needed to. This is a young team, and we needed to learn how to win."
With the loss, Trinity's men's team fell to 0-4 on the season. Trinity's women's team fell to 0-2.
Gaff led the Lancers with 17 points, while Wienhorst and Plumlee scored 13 points each and David Swanson chipped in with 12 points.
Swanson pulled down a game-high 16 rebound for the Lancers, who out-rebounded the Trojans 47-37.
"We got great minutes out of David Swanson tonight," said Kessler. "David finished with 16 rebounds. That's a good night's work."
David Henry and Jacob Peattie scored six points each for Grace.
Zukauskas led Trinity with a game-high 22 points, while Patrick Atkins finished with 14.
In the women's game, Grace used a 13-2 run to take a 38-22 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
The Lady Lancers built their advantage up to as much as 20 in the second half before Trinity International made a run and trimmed the lead to 10, 58-48, with 5:01 remaining.
Demetria Eley led the Lady Lancers with 14 points, while Kiera Gray finished with 12 points and Hayley Cashier and Kendall Withered scored 10 points each.
Melanie Duplessis led Trinity International with 21 points.
The Grace men host Taylore-Fort Wayne Monday, while the Lady Lancers host Siena Heights Tuesday.
