Box Score Wyoming, MI – There was not an open seat in the Aldrich Athletic Center Wednesday night, as the stands overflowed for the Grace men's basketball team's season opener against NAIA Spring Arbor University.

The Cougars handled the road atmosphere well and jumped out to an early lead and led 42-22 at the halftime break. A few surges for the Tigers in the second half would give them multiple opportunities to trim the lead to 12 points, but that was the closest they'd come, resulting in a 76-54 setback.

It was a cold shooting night for Grace, connecting on only 4 of 20 shots from beyond the arc and shooting 38% for the game compared to 52% from the Cougars. Despite forcing 20 turnovers, the Tigers were outrebounded 47-26.

The Tigers were led by Bankeys Omari, who scored 22 points on the night, 18 coming in the second half. JT Martinson followed with 13 on the night. Gabe Newhof scored 36 points and had 14 rebounds for Spring Arbor.

Head Coach Ryan Krombeen stated, "We just didn't do a good job of following our game plan in the first half. We played the game that Spring Arbor wanted us to play, rather than how we wanted to play. Their size definitely affected us, and we dug ourselves into too big of a hole. I thought our second half was a sign of the way we can play when we execute well. Thankfully, we still have 30 games left, plenty of time to right the ship."

Next up for Grace is a road trip to Richmond, IN, where they will face Oakland City University on Friday and Indiana University East on Saturday.