LANSING, Mich. – Grace's men's basketball team trailed by as many as 20 points on New Year's Eve at Great Lakes Christian.
But the No. 7 Lancers showed resilience, rallying for an 85-82 win on the road to close out the calendar year.
The win comes on the heels of Grace's grueling double overtime victory against Cornerstone one day ago.
Grace boasts a 15-1 record after completing the nonconference portion of the season on Friday.
The Lancers will turn their attention to a high-profile matchup at home on Tuesday. No. 7 Grace will host No. 9 Indiana Wesleyan at 7 p.m. at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center. The matchup features the lone unbeaten teams remaining in the Crossroads League (both 4-0 league records).
Tuesday's game will have free admittance for all employees and students of Warsaw Community Schools. The game will also be Remodel Health Night.
Frankie Davidson starred for Grace, registering 30 points and seven rebounds, and Ian Scott poured in 18 points, 8 boards, 5 assists and 4 blocks as a critical player off the bench.
The start of the game was very misleading to the rest of the first half. Grace scored the first eight points of the contest, which forced an early timeout by the home team.
But GLCC exploded to life after Grace's start. The Crusaders ripped off a 22-3 run over the next four minutes. Grace turned the ball over six straight possessions during the Crusaders' charge.
Grace still faced an 11-point deficit with four minutes left in the first half, but GLCC scored 11 points in less than a minute. After the Chargers sank its third straight triples, Grace found itself in a 20-point deficit at 48-28.
The Lancers went into halftime behind 50-34. Grace turned the ball over 18 times in the first 20 minutes. The Lancers shot 1 of 8 on 3-pointers (13 percent) compared to 7 of 9 (78 percent) for the Crusaders.
GLCC still maintained a double-digit lead for the first several minutes of the second half. With 11:29 remaining, Grace trailed 68-57.
The Lancers began their push at that point, however. Grace scored nine straight points to pull within two with 8:36 on the clock.
Two minutes later, an and-1 by Davidson tied the score at 73-73.
The game remained close until the final buzzer; the sides exchanged baskets over the final five minutes to set up a tight finish.
Davidson scored nine straight points down the stretch as he continued his dominant play in the second half.
A pair of free throws by the Crusaders gave the hosts a slight 82-81 lead with over a minute to play. But with 44 seconds remaining, Davidson converted a layup to give Grace the lead for good.
Scott came up with a clutch block on the next possession, and he raced down the court for a wide-open finish for the final three-point margin of victory.
Grace forced a contested 3-point shot on the final play, and the Lancers secured their 15th win of the season as a result.
Elijah Malone finished with 9 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks, and Jakob Gibbs added nine points and four boards.
Cade Gibbs tallied 8 points, 6 boards, 4 steals and 3 assists, Carter Stoltzfus had 5 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds, and Brycen Graber had six rebounds and four assists.
