NC Indiana News

No. 2 Grace takes down No. 3 Firestorm

In a marquee NAIA matchup, Grace's men's basketball team handled No. 3 Arizona Christian 80-62 on Tuesday.

The Lancers (12-1) were a physical force in the NAIA Top-3 matchup, shooting 53 percent from the floor compared to 32 percent for the Firestorm (9-2).

Grace swatted 10 shots, held a plus-14 advantage in the rebounding battle and scored 42 points in the paint in an impressive showing.

Jakob Gibbs led all players in scoring with 18 points, adding four assists and three rebounds. His brother Cade Gibbs finished with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting to go along with six boards.

Frankie Davidson was heavily involved with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, and Elijah Malone was on triple-double watch with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 8 blocked shots.

Grace wasted little time getting the lead on Tuesday, feeding Malone for a post finish on the first possession.

The Lancers scored on their first three possessions, all of which came in the paint.

Grace quickly pulled ahead 14-2 after an and-1 by Davidson and a stepback triple from Brycen Graber.

The No. 3-ranked Firestorm had no answer for Grace's physicality in the first half. Grace scored on a variety of post touches and drives, pushing ahead by as many as 24 in the first half with the score 32-8.

Grace rattled the rims as well in the half, including thunderous dunks from Malone, Davidson and Jakob Gibbs.

In the final seven minutes, the Lancers got a bit careless with the ball. Grace turned the ball over seven times in the closing minutes, giving ACU signs of life.

But the Lancers still led comfortably 40-22 at halftime. Grace shot 52 percent from the floor in the half compared to ACU's 24 percent. The Firestorm were empty from deep, missing all 17 of their 3-point tries.

Grace turned the ball over 11 times in the half compared to four for ACU, but the Lancers also outrebounded ACU by 12 (31-19).

All eight Lancers who played in the first half scored a point, led by eight points apiece from Davidson and Malone.

Davidson's offense remained hot to begin the second half, scoring eight of the Lancers' first 10 points in the second half.

The Firestorm attempted a rally, trimming Grace's lead to 14, but Davidson's offense pushed the Lancers' cushion above 20.

The Firestorm did their best to rally midway into the second half. ACU used a pair of triples to chop the Lancers' lead down to 12 with 9:00 to play.

Three minutes later, ACU had Grace's advantage down to 11 at 65-54 with 6:12 remaining.

Jakob Gibbs canned a timely 3-pointer on the next possession to boost Grace's breathing room.

Grace continued to score freely from that point, including a few more drives by Jakob Gibbs and a triple by Carter Stoltzfus. Cade Gibbs ended Grace's scoring with a 3-pointer, pushing Grace's lead to the final 18-point margin of victory.

Stoltzfus hit a pair of 3s for his six points, Ian Scott tallied 4 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds, Jake Wadding had four points and six boards, and Graber added 3 points, 4 boards and 2 assists.

The Lancers will remain in Arizona for another matchup tomorrow night at Park Gilbert.

Original source can be found here.