Grace’s Eddie Gill walks off as Northwestern’s bench storms the floor. The Eagles defeated No. 1 seed Grace 79-76 in Thursday’s second semifinal. InkFreeNews photo by Nick Goralczyk

By Nick Goralczyk
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE – “Uff da.”

The phrase used to express frustration, disbelief or plain dismay is commonly used residents of Minnesota. Thursday night at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center it was the locals left murmuring, “uff da,” while the visitors from Minnesota, the Eagles of Northwestern, celebrated. Northwestern knocked off the top-seeded Grace Lancers 79-76 to advance to Saturday’s NCCAA championship game.

“I just felt that (Northwestern) made plays and we didn’t,” explained Grace head coach Scott Moore. “(Northwestern) hit some timely shots, some tough shots. We got some possessions there at the end of the game where we got good looks but the ball just didn’t go in.”

Grace trailed 77-76 with 11.2 seconds to play. Following a timeout by Moore, the Lancers were able to get a decent look from three by Haden Deaton. Deaton’s shot was off the mark, just his second miss from deep in the contest. Northwestern would pull down the rebound with just over three second to play. A pair of free throws from the Eagles and a missed shot from half court by Grace left the Lancers on the outside looking in on this year’s NCCAA title tilt.

Deaton, a senior, finished the night 4-6 from deep and tallied 16 points for the Lancers. Grace would only go 6-14 from beyond the arc in the contest. It was Northwestern’s shooting from long range that really made a key difference in the game as the Eagles hoisted 31 three balls, connecting on 13. Noah Alm and Caleb Waldeck matched Deaton with four made threes on the night.

Thursday’s contest featured 14 lead changes with Northwestern never leading the Lancers by more than four. But the Eagles made it their business to hang around. That paired with the threes were enough to get them to Saturday evening’s championship.

“Northwestern is a really good team, they run their stuff really, really well,” Moore said of his opponent. “They have a great coach, been there 20-plus years, won over 400 games. That’s a very good basketball team.

“I was proud of our guys tonight. It was not an effort thing. As long as it’s never an effort thing, we will lose and win games and be okay with the results. It happens. It still stinks, it still hurts.”

Northwestern coach Tim Grosz picked up his 400th career win during Wednesday night’s quarterfinal win over Lancaster Bible thanks, in part, to some late heroics from Waldeck. Thursday night it was Henry Fahnbulleh coming through in the clutch.

Fahnbulleh, a name the PA announcer had to take a breath to get through most of the night, was a player that had Grace faithful holding their breath every time he had the ball in his hands. The freshman hit the go-ahead three for the Eagles with 56 seconds to play. Fahnbulleh led all players with 21 points and had a team-high five rebounds.

Grace struggled to shoot for much of the game, finishing at just 44 percent as a team from the floor. The Lancers were an impressive 4-6 from three in the first half but just 2-8 from deep after the break.

Frankie Davidson and Jakob Gibbs were the only Lancers, outside of Deaton, to hit from deep. Davidson led Grace with 18 points while Gibbs had 14. No other Lancer player scored more than 10 points.

The loss puts Grace into Saturday’s third place game against Alice Lloyd College with tip set for noon at the MOCC. Grace (19-12) will be looking for its first 20-win season since 2015-16.

Northwestern will play Ottawa at 5 p.m. Saturday evening for the blue banner.