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Ankeny, IA – After grinding out an 85-74 victory over the number 2 seed Manhattan Christian College, the Grace Bible men's basketball team has earned a spot in tomorrow's NCCAA DII National Championship game for the first time since 2012.

The Manhattan Christian Thunder jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead before the Tiger bench provided a spark to take a lead of their own midway through the half.  Luke McKian (SR/Fremont HS) had perhaps the best half of his entire career in the first 20 minutes of the game, scoring 16 points and pulling down 7 rebounds to lead the Tigers to a 36-31 lead heading into the halftime break. 

The second half was as intense as you could imagine with both of the quality teams vying for a spot in the championship game.  A total of 50 fouls were called throughout the game by the officials, resulting in 69 combined free throws shot by both teams.  After holding a slim lead for the entire second half, Grace was able to put together a short run to extend the lead to 10 points at 78-68 on an and-one basket from Conner Crawford (FR/Northview HS) with just under three minutes remaining in the game.

"Hats off to Manhattan, they played a great game," commented Grace head coach Gary Bailey.  "The game was called extremely tight and I don't think it benefitted either team.  Either team overcoming 50 fouls is hard to overcome."

Grace's All-American backcourt duo of Jared Bradford and Rod Altidor both fouled out with more than five minutes remaining in a close game.  Crawford (FR/Northview HS), Caleb Anderson (FR/Shelby HS), and Matt Jensen (SO/Sparta HS) were all able to step up huge and take care of the ball and close out the game for the Tigers.

After a slow start, Bernard Smith (SO/Western Michigan Christian HS) had a huge second half, finishing the game with 17 points and 15 rebounds.  Crawford finished with a game-high 18 points, helping close out the game by shooting 10-13 from the free throw line.  McKian finished the game with 16 and 7, plagued by foul trouble in the second half. 

 "All of the things that we worked on all year really benefitted us tonight," added Bailey.  "It was really fun setting on the bench and enjoying the game with the players and the coaches."

The Tigers will face number 1 seeded Hillsdale Freewill Baptist College tomorrow at 5:00 pm at Faith Baptist Bible College in the championship game.