FORT WAYNE - When Tuesday's men's basketball game at the Schaefer Center was on the line, so were the host Warriors.
Indiana Tech went to the free throw line on 12 of their last 25 possessions, cashing in at the charity stripe and collecting an 82-71 win over the Grace College Lancers."We hacked our way out of the game," said Grace College coach Jim Kessler, whose Lancers were whistled for 20 fouls, while the Warriors were whistled for 14 fouls. "We put them on the line on 12 of the last 25 possessions. You just can't do that. We hacked ourselves right out of the game."
After converting its only free throw attempt in the first half, Indiana Tech, now 1-2 on the season, was 18 of 24 at the line in the second half en route to the 11-point win.
The Lancers, who fell to 1-1 on the season, were 9 of 14 from the free throw line in the loss.
Not only did Indiana Tech benefit from getting to the charity strip, the Warriors also had fewer turnovers (16-14) and outrebounded Grace 33-26, including a 13-9 advantage on the offensive glass.
"We don't know how to be a team yet," Kessler said of his young team, which has a roster that includes nine freshman. "We're trying to learn. We need to do things with more of a collective purpose. We just didn't play team basketball."
After sophomore Kyle Pressley hit a half-court shot to end the first half, Indiana Tech led 40-30.
Senior Shaun Cabrera, a Warsaw graduate, scored the first bucket of the second half, giving the Warriors a 42-30 advantage, but the Lancers went on a 17-5 run to tie the game at 47-all with just under 15 minutes to play.
With a pair of free throws from junior David Henry, Grace took a 53-52 lead, the Lancers' first lead in the game since being up 9-8.
In what became a back-and-forth battle, Indiana Tech grabbed the lead again, and then Grace freshman Elliot Smith's three-pointer gave the Lancers another lead.
Grace cut the deficit to three, 70-67, with 2:32 remaining when freshman Daniel Goins made a steal and assist to sophomore Duke Johnson, who was fouled and then converted the three-point play.
That's as close as the Lancers would be the rest of the game, as Cabrera hit a pair of free throws to push the Warriors' lead to five just seconds after Johnson's three-point play.
Cabrera's charity tosses started a 12-4 run for Indiana Tech, a run that led the home team to its first win of the season.
The Warriors converted 6 of 7 free throw attempts in the final 2:31 of the game, including a 4-of-4 performance from Cabrera.
"Shaun played a nice game for them," Kessler said of the former Warsaw Tigers standout.
Cabrera led Indiana with a team-high 16 points and also dished out five assists.
Anthony Johnson and Jason Souder, both juniors, and Pressley finished the game with 15 points each.
Pressley finished the game with a double-double, as he also pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.
Indiana Tech was 28 of 53 (53 percent) from the field overall and 7 of 16 from three-point range.
"I think we tried to do things without a sense of collective purpose," said Kessler. "I think the defense was the most disappointing thing. We just failed to defend."
To go with their four double-figure scorers, the Warriors also got eight points each from senior John Roche and junior Carlos Woodard.
The Lancers had four players score in double figures, led by Smith's game-high 18 points.
Senior David Swanson added 14 points, while Johnson chipped in with 13 points and eight rebounds and Henry finished the game with 13 points.
In Saturday's season-opening win, Swanson was a beast in the post, leading the Lancers to a win over Ohio University-Eastern with 26 points and 14 rebounds.
In Tuesday's loss at Indiana Tech, Swanson had just four rebounds.
Johnson was the only Grace player with more than four boards.
"They shot more free throws than us, we had more turnovers than them, they outrebounded us, that's just not good," said Kessler.
The Lancers are in action again Friday and Saturday in the St. Ambrose Classic.
Grace will host Cincinnati Christian College Tuesday at 7 p.m.
