MARION, Ind. -- The Indiana Wesleyan University men?s basketball team earned their first victory in conference play as they defeated previously conference unbeaten Grace (Ind.) College 78-67 on Saturday afternoon in Luckey Arena.

The Wildcats improve to 12-4 overall and 1-2 in the Mid-Central College Conference. Grace falters to 13-4 and 2-1 in the MCC.

Grace opened the game running and turned a 7-6 lead into a 22-11 advantage with a 15-5 run. But Indiana Wesleyan exploded over the next eight and a half minutes with a 21-3 run to capture a 32-25 lead.

The Wildcats built their advantage to eight points in the final four minutes of the half on two different occasions. IWU charged into intermission with a 38-32 lead.

Indiana Wesleyan pushed their advantage to nine points just two and a half minutes into the second half of play at 45-36. Grace would respond with 16 of the next 22 points to earn their first lead in the half, 52-51.

The Lancer lead would be short lived as junior Antonio Murrell connected on a 3-point basket the next time down the floor to give IWU the lead back at 54-52 with 9:52 remaining. Murrell ended the night with a game-high 24 points with four rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Indiana Wesleyan never trailed again.

Murrell?s basketball led a 10-1 Wildcat run and Indiana Wesleyan led 61-53.

Grace never cut the Indiana Wesleyan lead lower than four points as the Wildcats earned their fourth consecutive victory.

Sophomore Spencer Harris earned 19 points and five assists while freshman Will Hubertz added 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

IWU shot a blistering 53.2-percent (25 of 47) from the field and held Grace to 42.9-percent (24 of 56). The Wildcats finished 10-of-17 (58.8-percent) shooting from 3-point land.

Senior Marcus Moore led Grace with 20 points.

Indiana Wesleyan returns to action at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 9 as the Wildcats host MCC foe Marian (Ind.) College in Luckey Arena.