WINONA LAKE - The Grace College Lady Lancers had the Mid-Central College Conference's top team on the ropes Wednesday, but could never land the knock-out blow.
After forcing overtime, the Lancers found themselves with the ball and down by two points with 7.8 seconds remaining.However, despite having a timeout remaining, the in-bounds pass was forced and subsequently stolen by Marian's Jessica Carr. After hitting two free throws, Carr sealed the Marian Knights' 79-74 victory in women's basketball action at the Orthopaedic Capital Center..
"It's not an excuse, but sometimes we have five freshmen on the floor," Grace coach Scott Blum said. "We need to learn from these experiences. On that one, you probably call a timeout, and I probably should have, but sometimes you can't call it in time. Our play got blown up, and they caused a turnover."
The loss dropped Grace to 4-7 on the year and 0-2 in the MCC, but a tough schedule has skewed the Lancers record a bit.
"This is the way the conference is," Marian coach Todd Bacon said. "Everybody is quality. Grace has played a much better schedule than we've played, and we're well aware of that. We knew it would be tight. From the conference games we've seen, this is just the way it's going to be every game."
Improving to 8-0, and 2-0 in the MCC, Marian may have had a little easier time with the Lancers if it wasn't for numerous missed lay-ups in transition, many of them coming after breaking the Grace press.
"We thought we might be able to push it, and we did, but we didn't get the ones to fall that we wanted to," Bacon said.
Even with the missed shots, Marian still put 42 points on Grace in the opening half, drawing the ire of Blum.
"The biggest thing was defense," he said. "They scored 42 points in the first half, and we can't let a team do that. Fortunately, we came out in the second half and decided to play defense. In the first half, they were just driving, shooting lay-ups. When you're giving up lay-ups, it's going to be tough to beat anybody."
Down 42-34 at the half, the Lancers slowly chipped away at the lead until a jumper by sophomore Kiera Gray knotted the game at 68-68 with a minute to play.
The score remained tied over the final minute, and Grace did take the lead with 4:27 remaining in overtime following a bucket by junior Demetria Eley. However, with Marian already in the double-bonus, it was able to pull ahead and never relinquish the lead.
The Knights had three girls finish with double-digit point totals, led by fifth-year senior Whitney Frame's 21 points. Emily Smithson scored 17 points for the Knights and Megan Egenolf chipped in 16.
"She learned a lot sitting out," Bacon said about Frame, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last year. "She learned a lot about how people defend her and how people defend our offense, and where the open spots are. She works less now to get open shots. Instead of running all the time, she can find those open spots after watching for a year. It's helped her game a lot."
Gray led the the Lancers with 23 points and eight rebounds, while Eley and freshman Hayley Cashier scored 10 points each in the loss.
"Gray and Eley are both really good players, and coach Blum has a really strong freshmen class," Bacon said. "Honestly, the person we were most impressed with on the tape we got, other than Gray and Eley, was (freshman Jamie Westness). That kid could be special. She's got size and shoots a nice jumper."
Blum's roster features just one senior and junior to go with two sophomores and nine freshmen. With that kind of experience, Blum's looking for the girls with college basketball experience to lead the way, until the freshmen find their footing.
"Kiera's really had a good year up to this point, and she's only a sophomore," the fifth-year coach said. "Demetria also played well as a junior, and Morgan DiAntonio is only a sophomore, and she's coming off a knee surgery from last year, so she's still getting back to 100 percent.
"It's been a good mix of the freshmen and upperclassmen, even though there's only a couple," he added. "The thing we have is our unity and chemistry. I told the girls, if anything, the wins and losses aren't the only thing we're here for, so let's continue to be together as a team."
Grace hosts another MCC squad Saturday when the Huntington Foresters visit the Orthopaedic Capital Center for a 1 p.m. game.
"As long as we bounce back and learn from this, we know we can play with every team," Blum said. "We have to learn from this, because we're going to be in close games against Huntington, against Indiana Wesleyan and against St. Francis. Now we have to learn how to close, and go out and win our next one."
