GRINNELL, Iowa – The NCAA Division III record book was rewritten a bit Saturday in the Grinnell College men's basketball team's 151-128 victory over Greenville College.
 
In a battle pitting the nation's top two scoring teams, Grinnell broke the D-III record for free throws made in a game with 54. The previous mark was 53, established in 1988 by UC-San Diego against Menlo.
 
The 2-2 Pioneers also tied the D-III mark for free throws attempted in a game with 71. Earlham attempted 71 in a game with Oberlin in 1992.
 
Grinnell's defense held Greenville, the nation's top-scoring team at more than 140 a game, to well under its average while giving the 4-1 Panthers their first loss of the season.
 
The Pioneers got a game-high 39 points from Julian Marx '17, who was almost perfect on free throws by hitting 13-of-14. He was also 6-of-13 from 3-point range and moved to 16th on Grinnell's career scoring chart with 1,188 points.
 
Ky-Sean Johnson '19 added 23 points with the aid of 12-of-15 free throw shooting, while Vinny Curta had 21, Nick Curta '17 scored 14 and Mike Porter '17 tallied 11 to go along with a career-high seven assists.
 
Griffin Boehm '19 had a career-high 12 rebounds, Nick Curta came up three steals and Jacob Ekstrand '18 blocked two shots.
 
Greenville went up by as many as seven early in the first half before Grinnell rallied and tied it at 34-all on Porter's free throws with 10:20 left in the first half.
 
There was one more tie before Grinnell gradually pulled ahead. The Pioneers led 49-46 before going on a big 17-5 spurt for a 66-51 lead with 2:30 left. Marx and Johnson each had five points in that span, Nick Curta four and Vinny Curta three.
 
Grinnell led 72-59 at halftime and never let the guests closer than nine the rest of the way.
 
The Pioneers entertain Simpson College at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Darby Gymnasium.