Dec. 8, 2007

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Allendale, Mich. - With No. 9 Findlay holding a slim 48-47 lead in the second half, No. 2 Grand Valley State turned it up a notch. The Lakers closed the game on a 35-12 run to defeat the Oilers by a final score of 82-60. The win pushes the Lakers' season-opening win streak to 10. Grand Valley heads into Dec. 17's game against Rochester with a 10-0 record and a 3-0 conference mark. That game is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m.

L.J. Kilgore hit a three-pointer on Grand Valley's first possession to give the Lakers a 3-0 lead, but Morgan Lewis hit long shots on back-to-back possessions to put the Oilers up 6-3 early. Lewis finished the game with a team-high 18 points. The Oilers started strong, going up by seven, 16-9, after a layup by Marcus Parker just 5:28 into the game. That lead ballooned to nine, 24-19, when Josh Bostic hit a three-pointer at the 10:50 mark. Bostic filled up the stat sheet, notching 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

Justin Ringler, who came off the bench to score 14 points and grab a team-high six rebounds, hit a shot from beyond the arc to start a 15-2 run over the next 4:19. The run included five points from Ringler and four from Eziukwu, who shot 8-10 (.800) in 31 minutes of action. Findlay retook the lead with 2:22 remaining in the first half on a layup by Tyler Evans. Eziukwu scored three of his 20 points to end the first half with Grand Valley leading 36-34. Eziukwu also notched three blocks on the day.

The score was tied four times early in the second half. A jumper by Bostic made it 38-38 at 18:10, a three-pointer and jumper by Lewis tied the game at 44 and 46 and then a free throw shot by Ringler made it 48-48 with 12:41 left. From then on, it was all Grand Valley. The Lakers went on an 11-0 run to make the score 58-48, capped by a layup from Nick Freer, who finished the day with 14 points and six rebounds.

Ringler completed a three-point play with 7:19 left in the contest to make the run 16-2 and give Grand Valley a 63-50. By the time Findlay had notched eight points since GVSU started their run, the Lakers had already reached their final score of 82 and held a massive 26-point lead with just 1:29 remaining. The Oilers scored the last four points of the game to end the contest at 82-60.