Men's Basketball fumbles late lead in loss to NAIA #7 Grace

LANSING, Mich. - Great Lakes Christian College men's basketball's winning streak came to an end on New Year's Eve as a 16-point halftime lead faded down the stretch in an 85-82 loss to NAIA #7 Grace College.

Grace opened the game on an 8-0 run, but Great Lakes quickly came back to not only take the lead, but launch a 17-4 run of their own late in the half to push that lead to 20 points. Grace scored a couple of late buckets to cut the lead to 50-34 at the break.

GLCC maintained its advantage for most of the second half, still leading by 13 with 13:34 to play, but a 15-4 Grace run trimmed the lead to two with under nine minutes left. Great Lakes held out the visitors for a moment, but Grace's Frankie Davidson took matters into his own hands, scoring nine points in three minutes to put his team shead 77-75 with a dunk at the 3:21 mark.

The teams traded the lead down the stretch, but Great Lakes went cold at the very end, missing each field goal attempt they took in the final 2:26 as Davidson put his team ahead for good with 44 seconds left. A game-tying three-point attempt by Kylan Shipp in the final seconds bounced off the rim and Grace held on to secure their comeback win.

Great Lakes forced 23 turnovers and took 13 more shots than Grace, but couldn't make them count. GLCC shot 10/21 (47.6%) from outside the arc but only 21/53 (39.6%) inside it as Grace dominated the paint, outrebounding GLCC 47-26.

Grace, for their part, only made two of their 13 three-point attempts (15.4%) but shot 30/48 (62.5%) on two-point attempts and blocked eight shots, led by Ian Scott's four.

Jahmal Eggleston led GLCC with 14 points off the bench. Trent Temple made five steals to go with his nine points and Evan Anderson blocked a pair of shots while scoring 10 points. Shipp scored 13 and provided five assists.

Davidson went off for Grace, scoring 30 points to led all scorers and pilot his team to a win. Scott scored 18 and collected eight rebounds in addition to his stalwart defensive performance. Elijah Malone scored nine and grabbed nine boards.

Great Lakes will return in the new year to face Oak Hills Christian on Monday at 7:00 at the Doty.