Men's Basketball Main Story

Grace Advances to Semifinals in Overtime Thriller

3/18/10

OAKLAND CITY, Ind. -- Oakland City University led Grace’s men’s basketball team the entire game on Thursday. That is, until the final 2.1 seconds of regulation.

David Swanson got an offensive rebound and scored a put-back layup with 2.1 seconds left to tie the game 69-69 and send the contest into overtime. The Lancers (17-14) outscored Oakland City 15-8 in overtime en route to an 84-77 victory to advance to the second round of the NCCAA tournament.

“When it hit the rim, it was the highest bounce I’d ever seen,” Swanson said of his last-second put-back. “I just tried to time it right, went up and grabbed the ball and put it in luckily. I just praise God for the victory.”

Grace took their first lead of the game when Duke Johnson made a free throw at the beginning of overtime to give the Lancers a 70-69 advantage. The Mighty Oaks (19-8) retook the lead (73-72) at the 3:16 mark – but it was their last of the game.

Grace sparked an 8-1 run led by four points apiece from Johnson and Swanson. The lethal duo of Johnson & Swanson scored 11 of Grace’s 15 overtime points to earn the victory.

“The real key was that we got several stops in a row down the stretch,” said head coach Jim Kessler. “We attacked the basket, got to the free throw line and hit free throws down the stretch. Praise the Lord – we survived to play again.”

Although the Mighty Oaks led for the first 39:58 of the game, Grace never let the contest slip away. Oakland City’s largest lead in regulation was merely seven points in the first half and eight points in the second half. 

When Grace fell behind by eight (48-40) at the 13:52 mark in the second half, Nick Achille came off the bench and drained two big 3-pointers to keep his team in the game. Lee Ross also came off the bench and played stellar defense on Oakland City’s leading scorer Jared Maners and held him to 12 points on 3-of-13 shooting.

Johnson had a career-high 30 points to go along with 10 rebounds, and Swanson added 18 points and 10 boards. Dayton Merrell added 11 points while Achille tallied 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

The Lancers only had 14 turnovers on the evening compared to 18 from Oakland City, 11 of which came after halftime.

Grace, the second best free throw shooting team in NAIA Div. II, sunk 23-of-27 from the charity stripe including 12-of-13 from Johnson. Oakland City struggled from the line and shot 14-of-28.

Swanson moved up to tenth on the Grace’s career rebounding list (946) and passed Matt Abernethy (937) on the evening. The Lancers’ lone four-year senior is also the only Grace basketball player to participate in four national tournaments.

No. 4 Grace earned the victory in front of No. 5 Oakland City’s home crowd and an attendance of 858. Head coach Jim Kessler has never lost in the first round of the NCCAA tournament.

The Lancers will play No. 1 King College at 7 p.m. (central time) tomorrow in the semifinals.

Click here to view the photographs from Grace's first round game.