Men's Basketball Wins Defensive Battle Over the Saints

LANSING, Mich- The Great Lakes Christian College Crusader Men's Basketball team took on Holy Cross College (IN) Thursday night for the last home game of the semester. The home team wanted to be sure to give the home crowd one more memorable game before heading into Christmas break. Early in the game it was apparent the teams would be locked into a tough and physical defensive battle. The first half was not a lot of scoring for either side, but Lance Adams three long balls in the first half was the spark the Crusaders needed to take control of the game in the first half. The Crusaders gave only 26 points in the first half and held the Saints to just 36.7 percent from the field while forcing 11 first half turnovers.

In the second half, the Saints offense got going a little bit more becaue of Storm Cook. He scored all 19 of his points in the second half. The Crusaders were in a back and forth game all half, until JaQuin Jones and Quincy Green hit big shot after big shot in the last four minutes of the game. JaQuin Jones had 17 points and 5 rebounds while Green had 16 points and 3 rebounds for the Crusaders. The real story of the game was the Crusaders defense. The Saints defeated the Crusaders 77-56 October 30th, but tonight the Crusaders protected home court winning 70-63.

Inside the Box Score:

• The Crusaders turned it over only 6 times compared to Saints 19 times.
• The Saints shot better from the floor with 43.1 percent compared to GLCC's 36.9
• This was GLCC second win this season over a scholarship school this season.
• The Saints outrebounded the Crusaders 40-28

What Coach Says:

"What a win for our program. I am so proud of these guys. This was a huge win tonight. We are trying  to create a  culture of protecting home court and tonight was another step doing that. Our fans were amazing, just overall a great night of college basketball." On the team's defense, "Our guys defended their tails off tonight, we really made the adjustments to our gameplan from earlier this season, and executed it great. Holy Cross is a really good team who makes you defend for the whole clock, I was very proud of our guys discipline tonight."

What's Next:

The Crusaders will travel to Kentucky to play University of Pikeville and Washington Adventist December 18 and 19th next week to close out their first semester games.