MARION, Ind. -- No. 11-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University men’s basketball hit plenty of key shot attempts late in the game to hold off a second half rally by Grace (Ind.) in an 83-78 victory Wednesday night in Luckey Arena.

Zac Vandewater drilled a 3-pointer with 1:57 remaining to break a 74-74 tie and give Indiana Wesleyan a lead it would not relinquish down the stretch. IWU cemented the victory by connecting on all six free throw attempts in the final 23 seconds.

“That is the second big 3-pointer late in a game that he’s hit,” Indiana Wesleyan head coach Greg Tonagel said of the go-ahead basket by Vandewater. “Same spot and about the same time of the game as his shot against Bethel. You have to give him credit because he takes it and doesn’t worry about missing it. That is what you want good players to do.”

Bob Peters hit both free throw opportunities with 23 seconds to play to increase the IWU lead to two possessions at 79-75. Jordan Weidner then hit a pair of free throws with 14 seconds on the clock to put IWU up 3 points at 81-78. Indiana Wesleyan then forced a Grace turnover and RJ Mahurin was fouled with six seconds remaining. Mahurin calmly sank both free throws to seal the victory.

But it was just not the final 23 seconds that Indiana Wesleyan hit their free throws. In fact, IWU hit all 19 chances in the second half and finished the game at 93.1-percent (27 of 29).

“Our guys have put a lot of time in shooting free throws,” stated Tonagel. “So to see them reap the benefits of their hard work makes me proud of them.”

Early in the game it seemed the Wildcats would not need late free throw shooting to secure the win. IWU built a 10 point halftime lead behind extremely hot shooting. The Wildcats hit 62.1-percent (18 of 29) of their attempts in the first half and 63.6-percent (7 of 11) of their 3-pointers.

“We played great in the first half,” stated Tonagel. “We just found a rhythm.”

Leading the way was Weidner with 20 points before halftime. He also assisted on a 3-pointer by Vandewater with 15 seconds left before halftime for a 51-41 lead. The assist was his third of the game which gave him 443 career assists. That is a new program record for career assists as he passes IWU standout Antonio Murrell. Weidner also passed Murrell tonight for fourth place on the all-time IWU scoring list. Weidner finished with a game-high 28 points and has scored 1,954 career points.

“It’s pretty cool and it’s an honor,” said Weidner. “Now we don’t need to worry about it and I can keep distributing the ball to my teammates and extend the record more if I can.”

Grace (13-9, 5-6 CL) stormed back and scored the first 12 points of the second half to quickly take a lead at 53-51 as the period was less than 3 minutes old.

The score would remain within one possession either way until Weidner hit a pair of free throws for a 72-67 advantage with 6:16 to go. But Grace scored on their next two possessions to tie the score for the eighth time. Greg Miller hit two free throws with 3:15 on the clock for the ninth and final tie before Vandewater untied it with his huge 3-pointer.

“We lost that momentum in the second half,” Tonagel said. “A lot of it was our mentality and the way we came out to play. But I was proud of our guys because we could have folded. And that might have happened in November. Even though things were not going our way we just stayed with it. We grinded it out and finally broke through with some big shots.”

The loss brings a halt to the Lancers' 5-game win streak, all coming in Crossroads League games. During the win streak Grace defeated three top-25 teams.

Indiana Wesleyan (18-5, 8-3 CL) will next play Crossroads League leader Saint Francis (Ind.) on Saturday in Fort Wayne. Saint Francis is 9-2 in league play while Indiana Wesleyan and Huntington (Ind.) are each a game back at 8-3. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.