Men's Basketball Main Story

Buzzer Beater Spoils Grace's Upset Bid

2/24/10

SPRING ARBOR, Mich. -- A last-second, desperation 3-pointer by No. 21 Spring Arbor's Rob Boss upended Grace's men's basketball team 69-68 in the first round of the Mid-Central College Conference tournament.

The Lancers (16-14), the sixth seed in the tourney, had a five-point lead with one minute remaining before missed free throws and turnovers gave the Cougars (22-9) a shot to steal the win. Boss, a senior for the third-seeded Cougars, had never made a 3-point field goal in his career before that shot.

"I was deeply disappointed in the outcome tonight," said head coach Jim Kessler, "but I could not be more proud of my men tonight. We played terrific, intense defense and shot the ball well, except at the free throw line. They had to hit a lucky shot to win it."

From an opening bucket by sophomore Dayton Merrell, Grace led almost the entire game. The opening half was a back-and-forth battle with neither team grabbing a lead of more than six points. Spring Arbor used a 10-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 26-22 with 3:46 left in the first half. The Lancers quickly rebounded to take a 29-28 lead going into halftime.

Grace began to open up a lead midway through the second half. A 3-point shot by Merrell with 6:10 remaining in the game capped off a 10-2 run that gave the Lancers a 62-52 lead, their biggest of the game.

From then on, Spring Arbor chipped away at Grace's lead. The Lancers, one of the top free-throw shooting teams in the nation, missed their last four free throws of the game, including a pair by freshman Elliot Smith with seven seconds left in the game.

Coming into Wednesday night's game, the Lancers were ranked second in NAIA Div. II in free throw percentange (.762). Against Spring Arbor, Grace could only convert 11-of-18 from the charity stripe (.611), including 6-of-12 in the second half.

"We did what we needed to do to win," Kessler continued. "Our bigs were dominant, and we played good enough to win. We made some unfortunate decisions at the end, but I wouldn't have changed a thing."

The Lancers had twice as many turnovers as the Cougars (16 to 8), but they outrebounded Spring Arbor 44 to 26, including snatching 12 offensive boards.

Sophomore Duke Johnson hit 9-of-14 from the field for a game-high 24 points. He also grabbed eight boards. Senior David Swanson tallied a double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds, and Merrell finished with 13 points, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Smith struggled shooting with 1-of-7, but he dished out five assists with zero turnovers.

The Lancers now await the pairings for the NCCAA Regional qualifying game, which will be announced next week. Grace will hope to qualify for the NCCAA National Tournament which is held in Oakland City, Ind., from March 18-20.