Second-Half Surge Lifts LancersWINONA LAKE – Playing the final regular season home game of his college career, Logan Godfrey turned in a memorable performance Tuesday night at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center.
The 6-foot-7 Grace College senior, a Fort Wayne Snider High School product, threw down two thunderous dunks and scored 14 of his game-high 20 points in the second half as the Lancers beat Crossroads League rival Huntington University 77-75.
The host Lancers (14-15, 4-13 CL) led by as many as 14 points in the first half, but trailed the Foresters (16-13, 6-11 CL) by that many after the break.
Trailing 56-42, Grace scored the next seven points and used a 15-2 run to get within one point at 58-57 with 10:03 remaining.
About a minute later, Grace junior Charlie Warner’s three-pointer put the Lancers up 61-60 with 8:55 to play.
From there, it was a back-and-forth affair until the final buzzer sounded.
Tuesday’s game featured 12 lead changes and seven ties.
There were seven lead changes in the second half alone.
“That’s because we gave up in the first half,” veteran Grace College coach Jim Kessler said when asked about how big his team’s 15-2 run in the second half was.
“We started skateboarding or something, I don’t know what we were doing ... we weren’t playing basketball. We stood around watching each other, and that doesn’t work, you gotta keep playing. To their credit, they came back and got us going.
“At halftime, we talked about things we have to do turn the game around. You have to play defense. Both teams are great offensively, but in the first half we just stood. We weren’t creating for each other. You’ve got to create for each other, and stay with what we do system wise. I thought we did a better job of that in the second half.”
Grace shot 59 percent from the field in the second half and outscored Huntington 44-36 over the final 20 minutes.
Godfrey, who was in foul trouble in the second half, finished the game 9 of 13 from the field and added eight rebounds, four assists and a block to his 20 points.
“We wanted to go to him the first five or six possessions, and we got it inside to him, but then we quit going to him,” said Kessler.
“Logan played at Snider, and they rarely ever got him the ball. He was behind a couple big kids, so his first couple years here he wasn’t expecting to be a big part of the offense. The last two years he’s come into his own and now he expects to get the ball. He’s given us a post presence in the league, and he’s the leading rebounder in the league ... which is impressive considering the 7-footers we have in this league. He’s just been a tremendous player for us the last couple years.”
Warner and sophomore Haden Deaton scored 17 points each, while junior Braxton Linville tallied 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Huntington got 20 points out of Konner Platt, 18 from Zac Owens and nine points and 11 boards from Peyton West.
The Lancers will close the regular season Saturday with a 3 p.m. game at league foe Taylor University.
