For all that went poorly in the first half, the Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team almost made it all right in the second half, but simply ran out of time.

The Chargers' hopes of an NCCAA National Championship ended on Tuesday afternoon in Springfield, Missouri with an 85-77 loss to Kentucky Christian. LBC (13-15) will end their season on Wednesday with a Losers' Bracket game against either Ohio Christian or Portland Bible.

After taking a 14-9 lead 5:35 into the game on two Eric Nulf free throws, the Chargers offense and defense went south as the Knights went on a 17-2 run over the next 4:14 to take a 26-16 lead.

"We pulled Kevin and Kody at the same time and they went on that run," Chargers' Head Coach Pete Beers said. "We got out of our rotation and couldn't make stops defensively and we were out of sync offensively."

It didn't get much better after that either as the Knights ripped off another 14-5 run to take a 40-23 lead with 6:05 to play.

"We had chances to cut the lead, but simply didn't convert," Beers said.

After cutting the lead to 12 with 54 seconds to play, Kevin Keltner was called for a questionable foul with 2.5 seconds remaining as KCU's Drew Johnson was shooting a 3-pointer. Johnson made two of three to give the Knights a 49-35 halftime lead.

The 49 points was the third most given up in one half this season for LBC. They gave up 59 to Franklin & Marshall and 51 to Cabrini in back-to-back games in early January.

The Chargers tried desperately to work their way back into the game early in the second half, but the Knights matched them bucket-for-bucket or defensive stop-for-defensive stop. KCU took their biggest lead of the game, 65-45, on an Eric McKee lay up with 13:10 to play.

LBC would not give in, as they went on a 10-1 run to cut the lead to 11 at 66-55 with 8:07 to play.

"Kevin began to assert himself more in the second half and began hitting his shots," Beers said. "We didn't give him many chances to do that early on and probably should have."

After a Keith Keltner 3-pointer and a lay up by Nulf, the Chargers had the deficit to eight and the LBC fans that made the trip were rocking The Forest Arnold Activities Building on the campus of Central Bible College.

McKee, the game's leading scorer with 29, quieted the fans with back-to-back jumper's to increase the lead back to 12. After the teams traded baskets for the next four minutes, Kevin Keltner's 3-pointer cut the Knights' lead to seven with 1:32 to play. The Chargers were forced to foul and McKee made three of four free throws over the next minute to secure the Knights' victory.

"McKee hit some shots today that were tough shots," Beers said. "Give him credit, we couldn't get him out of sync and he came off the bench and had 29 points."

The Chargers are now 0-5 all-time at the NCCAA National Tournament.

"We got beat by a better team today," Beers said. "But the potential is there for LBC to be a good team. We need to work hard March through September and remember what this loss feels like."

For LBC, Kevin Keltner led the way with 20 points and six assists. Koser had 17 points and five rebounds, while Nulf had 12 points and five boards. The Chargers' shot 48 percent from the floor, including 52 percent in the second half.

With one game to go in their season, Beers knows the Chargers will come out ready to play.

"We need a win at Nationals," Beers said. "This isn't the way we wanted to get that win, but we need it. There are a lot of positives with this team and we still have an East Region banner to hang our hats on."

The Chargers will play on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT.

Notes:
-LBC is now 0-4 all-time against Kentucky Christian, including 0-2 at neutral sites.

-Keltner moved into 4th place all-time in games played at LBC with 109...He also moved into 10th place all-time in points scored, with 1,307...He passes Rick Jones (1976-80) who has 1,304...With 17 points on Wednesday, he would move into 9th place, passing Billy Harrison (2005-09).