Lancers’ comeback falls short
WINONA LAKE, Ind. – A wild second-half comeback was not enough to defeat Huntington on Tuesday as Grace’s men’s basketball team lost 92-83.
The Lancers trailed as many as 17 in the second half before Braxton Linville spearheaded a massive rally.
Linville, who scored a career-high 23 points, almost singlehandedly brought Grace back into the game. The sophomore hit four 3-pointers in a three-minute span to give Grace a spark in the second half.
Linville’s fifth triple of the half chopped the Foresters’ lead down to six with 8:04 on the clock.
After a defensive stop, Jaret Sons rattled in a trey to make the score 72-69 with seven minutes remaining.
But Grace’s defense quickly surrendered seven points to Huntington over the next 54 seconds, allowing the Foresters (6-6, 2-2 CL) to assert a 10-point edge.
The Lancers (6-7, 0-4 CL) continued to battle and sliced the deficit to one possession late in the game. An and-1 from Sons and a bucket from Charlie Warner made the score 86-83 with 1:12 on the clock.
Grace was unable to get a stop on the next possession, and Huntington secured the win with seven points in the last minute.
The Lancers shot 40 percent from the floor. The Foresters hit 57 percent of their shots and had a plus-eight advantage in rebounding. Over half of Huntington’s points (52 of 92) were scored in the paint.
Grace’s offense was sluggish to start Tuesday’s contest. The Lancers had just two points for the first five minutes of action until a 3-pointer from Haden Deaton got Grace back on the scoreboard.
Huntington grabbed an eight-point lead midway through the half and continued to build. The Foresters earned a double-digit lead and went ahead 46-29 in the final minute. Deaton buried a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the half, but Grace still faced a 14-point deficit at halftime.
Linville was 8-of-10 from the floor and was 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, finishing with 23 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. He scored all but two points after halftime.
Erik Bowen had 15 points, 7 boards and 3 assists, and Logan Godfrey added 12 points and eight rebounds.
The Lancers are off until Dec. 14 when they will host No. 5 Indiana Tech at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center.
