Dec. 6, 2007

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Allendale, Mich. - Crystal Zick and the Grand Valley State University women's basketball team overcame a 36-30 halftime deficit to defeat Saginaw Valley State University and move to 5-2 on the season. The Lakers have won five straight contests and are undefeated (2-0) in GLIAC play. Zick's 21 points and 10 assists were both team highs. Kim Wyngaard also pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds in the winning effort. GVSU's next game is against Findlay on Saturday, Dec. 8 in Allendale, Mich., with tip-off set for 1 p.m.

The teams played evenly throughout the first six minutes, when a Brittany Burkhardt layup tied the game at 10 all. Burkhardt finished with a game-high 22 points on 9-12 shooting. An 11-3 run by Saginaw Valley over the next 4:27 put them up by a score of 21-13. Grand Valley battled back and narrowed the gap to just two, 21-19, at the 7:21 mark with a three-point play by Nicole Carr. Carr scored a team-high 12 points in the first half and finished with 16 on the day.

Grand Valley eventually cut the lead to just one when Jocelyn Ingram hit a three-pointer with six minutes remaining in the half, making the score 25-24. The Cardinals scored 11 of the next 13 points to go up 36-26 with 1:27 left in the first half, culminating the run with a longball by Kara Kinzer. GVSU scored the last four points of the half, but were still trailing 36-30 heading into the break.

The Lakers started off the second half hot, scoring 12 of the first 14 points to take a 42-38 lead. Lauren Buresh was the only Lakers to score more than once during the run, notching four points on a jumper and two free throws. The Cardinals hung around and a jumper by Brittany Burns with 8:57 left in the game made the score 49-48 in favor of the Lakers. Kara Crawford and LaTille Ross traded baskets before the Lakers pulled away.

With the score 51-50, Zick scored seven of the next 13 points in the game to make the score 62-52 with just less than four minutes remaining in the contest. The Lakers held onto the lead down the stretch, and the Cardinals' deficit never dropped to below six. Zick hit five of her last six free throws to make the final score 69-60.