Santa Clarita, CA - Holy Names took on 7th ranked Lancers of Grace College. The Hawks would jump out early, but the Lancers showed why they are a top ten team and pulled away in the second half, defeating the Hawks 73-80.

Karlos Grier opened the game with a three point shot followed by Colby Herron with a pull up jumper to start the game with a 5-0 run. The Lancers would follow up with a 4-0 run of themselves. Both teams would exchange buckets over the next three minutes. Grace would then go on a 9-2 run to push their lead to 7 (13-20). Holy Names would cut the lead to 1 after a three point basket by freshman Richard Craig. Grace once again would respond and increase their lead to 5 with 5 minutes left in the half. The Lancers would increase their lead to 12 before half-time.

"I thought we committed too many mental errors in the half and they made us pay for them. When you play such a good team, it's important not to make mistakes. There were some good spots in the half, I thought our speed gave them problems," says Coach Sanchez

The second half proved to be too much for the Hawks as they were unable to get stops. The Hawks would cut the lead to 10 with 1:52 left in the half, but the Lancers enjoyed an 18 point lead at times in the half. Adam smith would score with 2 seconds left to cut Grace's lead to 13. Grace College would finish the game with a 13 point victory.

"This preseason we have competed against some pretty tough teams, but it gives us a perspective as to what we need to do to make it to nationals in February. Grace plays in one of the toughest conference at our level with about 5 teams ranked in the top 25, so it was good to see that at times we were able to give Grace some problems. We have one more preseason game to fix some things before we start our conference play," added Coach Sanchez.

For Grace, four finished in double figures. Greg Miller finished with 22 points and 8 rebounds, Duke Johnson added 16 points and 6 rebounds. Bruce Grimm and Jacob Peattie rounded off double figure scoring with 11 and 10 points respectively.

HNU's Karlos Grier led all scores with 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals. Colby Herron added 16 points.

Next for the Hawks is La Sierra University in Riverside, CA tomorrow at 7:30pm.