Grace Ladies Claim Championship
WINONA LAKE – It didn’t take Grace College women’s basketball coach Scott Blum very long to find the scissors and the ladder Thursday night.
Blum wanted to make sure that his talented team finally had its chance to cut down the nets following a championship.
The host Lancers won the program’s first title by cutting down Oakland City 84-66 in the NCCAA Midwest Regional Championship.
The Lancer ladies then climbed the ladder provided by their coach, himself a former championship player at Grace, and cut down the nets.
The 1-2 punch of Juaneice Jackson and Allison Kauffman combined to deck the Oaks in the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center.
Jackson, the program’s all-time leading scorer, tossed in 23 points and Kauffman canned 22 to lead the Lancers.
Grace was playing for the first time since losing to Marian 71-67 at home back on Feb. 25 in the Crossroads League Tournament.
Grace, now 17-15, will take part in the NCCAA National Championships back at the MOCC March 19-22.
“This is the first official championship of any kind for our women’s program here and the first time to cut down the nets,” said Blum as his players did the post game honors with the trimming of the twine. “I want them to enjoy this. They earned it.”
Earn it the Lancers did.
Grace trailed just once Thursday night at 3-2 before using their depth and a huge edge on the glass to pound the Oaks. A dozen players scored for the champions, who had a whopping 54-23 rebounding advantage as Oakland City chucked up 72 shots, including 31 from 3-point range.
Jackson, the lone senior for the Lancers, set the tone in the opening half. The smooth southpaw guard from Gary popped in 13 points as the Lancers led 39-33 at intermission. Oakland City stayed close by hitting 7-13 shots from 3-point range in the opening half.
The Lancers, who beat Oakland City 74-59 in a semifinal game of the NCCAA Midwest Regional a year ago, opened the second half with a 20-10 scoring edge to lead 59-43. Their lead ballooned to 66-46 midway through the final half. The Oaks then hit four straight treys to quickly cut the lead to 66-58 with nine minutes to play. Kauffman, a 6-0 junior forward from Fort Wayne, then sparked a quick 10-0 Lancer run that put the hosts in complete control.
Kauffman scored 19 of her 22 points in the second half as Grace shot 18-31 from the field. She ended the game 10-14 from the field and also had six rebounds.
“Our girls did a great job tonight,” Blum said. “It’s to our benefit with the depth we have. It helps us a lot that I have five players or more who can come off our bench. It’s tough sometimes to find playing time for everyone, but this group has been awesome with that.
“We knew they would just keep launching threes. We changed at halftime and switched on everything defensively in the second half and got a hand up on their shooters. We knew they would get tired and that our depth and pressure would wear them down and I think it did. I said we needed a 55-20 night on the boards and we were close to that.
“Alli was very patient tonight and ran the floor well and got some easy baskets. JJ did a good job getting us started by attacking. It was nice to have this game. Our girls are battled tested and hungry for next week. We have to be sharper than this next week because there will be a lot of good teams here. But I feel great about our chances next week.”
Jackson’s game-high 23 points gives her 1,830 for her brilliant career. She also had nine rebounds and five assists in the win.
Kelsey Sule had seven points, Chloe Pridgen six and Dariyan Morris five. Lindsey Schaefer, Gabby Bryant and Micah Pollard each had four and Darian Patton three. Sarah Feasby, Tiffany Petro and Hannah Adams each added two. Schaefer had 10 rebounds, while Feasby had seven and Bryant and Pridgen six each.
Grace shot 32-65 overall from the field, including 3-11 on threes. The Lancers were 17-22 from the line and had 17 turnovers.
Senior guard Lyndi Tedder led Oakland City with 21 points and hit 5-9 on treys. Chelsea Jones netted 17 points and hit 5-10 from distance and Brandi Richardson scored 10 points.
The Oaks, who drop to 10-14, shot 24-72 overall from the field. They were 14-31 from 3-point land and just 4-5 from the line with nine turnovers.