WINONA LAKE, Ind. -- All seemed doomed for the Indiana Wesleyan University women's basketball team Saturday afternoon before the Miracle on the Lake hit and left Grace (Ind.) College stunned in a 74-72 Wildcat victory in Winona Lake, Indiana.

Indiana Wesleyan (24-5, 13-3 MCC) trailed by five points with just over half a minute to play and their conference championship aspirations seemed lost. It also looked like Indiana Wesleyan would drop to the third seed in the upcoming Mid-Central College Conference Tournament and lose a potential home playoff game in the semifinals if the other conference games held by conference standings.

Then when everything seemed most dark is when everything began to change.

Down by five, Wildcat senior guard Kayla Thompson drilled a 3-point basket with 34 seconds on the clock to close the deficit to 72-70. Junior guard Ashley Brooks stole the inbounds pass and was immediately fouled. Brooks hit two clutch free throws to suddenly tie the score as IWU scored five points in less than a second.

Grace (16-13, 7-9 MCC) had the last shot and a chance to win on the final attempt. The Lancers got a pair of close range shot attempts up but both missed. IWU junior center Krystal Stoneking grabbed the rebound on the second shot attempt and was fouled 90-feet away from the basket with 0.8 seconds on the clock.

Stoneking promptly hit both free throws to send Indiana Wesleyan to the 74-72 victory and leave Grace in shock.

Despite a 7-0 run in the final 34 seconds good news still awaited the Wildcats. Huntington (Ind.) University ripped University of Saint Francis (Ind.) 75-57 which secured an outright MCC regular season title plus the No. 1-seed in the MCC Tournament.

Indiana Wesleyan claims the eighth MCC regular season championship in program history and the seventh under head coach Steve Brooks. Indiana Wesleyan has won seven of the past 11 conference titles.

In the conference clinching game, Indiana Wesleyan received huge efforts from a pair of post players as IWU outscored Grace 42-26 in the paint.

Stoneking scored a game-high 25 points on 11-of-11 shooting. She becomes only the third Wildcat to finish with a perfect day from the field with at least 10 attempts. Stoneking joins Liz Howerth (12 for 12) and teammate Elaine Hessel (11 for 11) in the club. Meanwhile Hessel added 20 points and was 5-of-8 from the field and 10-of-12 from the foul line. Thompson added eight points, four rebounds and nine assists.

The Wildcats shot 58.3-percent (28 of 48) from the floor and 83.3-percent (15 of 18) from the free throw line.

Indiana Wesleyan is the No. 1-seed in the MCC Tournament for the second straight season. IWU will host No. 8-seed Spring Arbor (Mich.) University at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22 in Luckey Arena in the MCC Tournament First Round.