WINONA LAKE, In. --- Asbury University (7 seed) and Lancaster Bible College (2 seed) met up in the first round of the 2022 NCCAA National Tournament on Wednesday morning. Despite Asbury jumping out to a large lead in the first half, the offense of Lancaster Bible came storming back to take the victory over Asbury in a tight game, 81 to 75. 

AU went on a blistering 12-0 run in the middle of the first half to take an early 25-13 lead over the 2 seed Lancaster Bible. The Asbury defense was following suit as with 4 minutes to go in the first half Lancaster had only been allowed 22 points. The Asbury lead was at it's largest at 41-24, before Lancaster would close the half on a run to shorten the gap. The Eagles still went into the half leading Lancaster 44-24. 

The strong offense of Lancaster Bible came out in the second tying the game up at 48-48 with 14 minutes to go in the game. From this point on it was a war between these teams, back and forth basketball until it was 72-72 with only 1:07 remaining in the game.

Grant Sareyka hit his stride in the final minute scoring 8 points that the Eagles could not recover from. Despite an incredible fight and upset bid by Asbury they fell short to Lancaster Bible College.

* Eric Powell had an incredible game scoring 28 pts, going 10-19 from the field, knocking down five from 3 and recorded 4 steals

* Nick Fort was a major impact as well with 20 pts, 6 ast, and 8 rebounds

* Dakota Walden was also in double digits with 10 pts, 2 ast, and 4 reb

* Lancaster Bible scored 22 points off of turnovers that helped them seal the win

* AU outrebounded Lancaster Bible 39-36

* Lancaster made 19 free-throws in the game

* Eric Powell had a special day scoring 28 pts and making 5 threes 

"We lost to a really good Lancaster Bible team today. That's a team that finished with only one loss in their conference this season. All credit to them. We're disappointed but we gave ourselves a chance to win. It's a quick turnaround and we're ready to get back after it tomorrow."

     * Associate Head Coach Russ Abner

Asbury will now move to the consolation bracket to play Ecclesia College on Thursday morning at 8:30 am