KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Grace College’s men’s basketball team earned its third straight trip to the NAIA Division II National Tournament, which is once again being held at College of the Ozarks near Branson, Mo. The Lancers, 21-9 on the season and second-place finishers in the regular-season Crossroads League standings, will play Tennessee Wesleyan in a first-round game at 5 p.m. ET on March 7. “We’re very happy to play in this tournament again – it’s been a very good run for us the past several years,” said Grace head coach Jim Kessler, who guided the Lancers to the 1992 national championship. “We’ve had a great season so far, and by winning eight of our final 11 games, we got the wins we needed.” Grace, which has punched its ticket to the tournament in five of the past six seasons, was ranked No. 20 in the Top 25 Coaches’ Poll released Wednesday afternoon. The Lancers’ first-round opponent, Tennessee Wesleyan, hails from the Appalachian Athletic Conference and boasts a record of 25-7. The Bulldogs are winners of their past 18 contests and feature the third-highest scoring offense in NAIA Div. II at 90.6 points per game. The Lancers earned the sixth of 12 at-large bids into the national tournament. Bruce Grimm Jr. (17.7 ppg, 5.4 apg), Greg Miller (17.3 ppg, 9.1 rpg) and Elliot Smith (11.3 ppg, 41% 3-pointers) lead Grace’s squad. “The body of work for the season showed that we should be in the tournament, but we stubbed our toe against Marian in the last game,” said Kessler. “So for us, we feel like we have a second chance, and with that comes a certain amount of energy. We want to make it count. Now we need to focus on staying loose for our first game. We need to play with no fear, play free on the court and get after it with confidence.”
