The Tigers blew a five point halftime lead Friday night, went down by five, then came back to lead midway through the second half, and eventually succumbed to the Pioneers late run and their own poor second half shooting (29%). Northland head coach, Pete Wehry, longtime friend of the Grace coaching staff, enjoyed his first win against the Tigers after two overtime losses in the two most recent games played on the Pioneer floor prior to tonight.

“It is never easy to play Northland on their floor,” said Coach Bailey, “and we knew a five point lead was not safe against this team. We made things more difficult with this loss for our journey to post season play but we’ll go back to work tomorrow against Silver Lake and try to figure out what went wrong tonight. I was pleased with our effort for much of the night but we had lapses that you can’t afford to have against a good team like this. It’s frustrating to lose a winnable game like this because we have had too many of them this season.”

Greg Salmon led the Tiger scoring with 12 and Jake Blauwkamp was the only other Tiger in double figures as he came off the bench to score 11 points. Zach Schutte led the Tigers with 7 rebounds. Three other Tigers, Nick Mascorro, Aaron Schutte, and Travis Rader, had 6 boards each.

It was announced that tonight’s game was Coach Wehry’s last game on Northland’s home court as he will be leaving Northland after this season to accept another position in Christian ministry. The Grace coaching staff wishes him well in his new endeavors.

The Tigers complete their regular season schedule Saturday afternoon at Silver Lake College and they will play their first game in the Midwest Regional Tournament on Thursday, February 21 at 8 pm on their home floor against an opponent yet to be determined. Tournament details will be posted on this website no later than Monday.