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02.25.09
- In the opening round
of the Mid-Central Conference tournament, 3rd-seeded Grace College
seemed to have the 6th-seeded Foresters on the ropes down 13 with 13
minutes left in the second half, but HU (20-11) fought its way back
and upset the Lancers 76-73. With the win, the Foresters move
to the MCC Tournament semifinals on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. HU will
travel to Indiana Wesleyan University to take on the 2nd-seeded
Wildcats who were 66-45 winners over Goshen College.
Grace sprinted
out of the gate with a 7-0 run to grab the early momentum, but the
Foresters didn't let them get away. The Lancers kept their
seven-point cushion for most of the first half until HU put together
a 10-2 run down the stretch to take a 32-31 lead to the locker room.
Kellen Zawadzki
put the Foresters up three with a field goal to open the second
half, but Grace responded with a 20-4 spurt that put the Lancers up
double digits at 51-38 with just five minutes gone in the period.
The Lancers were still up 10 midway through the half when a Zawadzki
trey ignited an 8-0 HU run to pull the Foresters within two at 64-62
at the 8:21 mark.
Grace out-scored
the Foresters 7-2 over the next two and a half minutes and an Eric
Gaff field goal with 4:25 to play put the Lancers up 73-66.
However, it would be the final points that Grace would score.
On HU's next possession, Kevin Kyle began the Foresters' final
charge with a shot in the paint to cut the deficit to five.
Following a Michael Wienhorst miss, Kyle Benge made it 73-70 with a
driving layup. After Gaff missed twice at the Lancers' end, he
was fouled on his third attempt and went to the line for a pair of
free throws with 3:14 on the clock. He misfired on both and neither
team scored until Benge connected on a jumper to make it 73-72 with
a minute left.
Following a
timeout, Grace worked the ball around and got the ball to David
Henry who's shot was off the mark. HU's Luke Smith pulled down the
rebound and the Foresters called timeout with 21 ticks left.
When HU returned to the floor, Benge drove hard to the hoop, but
lost the handle. Tyler Shively grabbed the ball and laid it in
to put the Foresters up 74-73. As the Lancers were bringing it
up the floor, Wienhorst fumbled the ball and Zawadzki came up with
it. Grace was forced to foul and Zawadzki drained both charity
tosses to give HU a 76-73 lead with eight seconds to go. Henry
and Gaff both got off 3-point attempts before the final buzzer, but
both were off the mark.
Zawadzki paced
the Foresters with a game-high 25-points. Smith finished with
22 and Benge added 15. Wienhorst topped three Lancers in
double figures with 22 points. Gaff contributed a
double-double with 19 points and 22 rebounds and David Swanson had
12 points.
Box Score
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