March 1, 2008

Box Score

Houghton, Mich. - Grand Valley State was down by as much as 14 points in the last 10 minutes of the game, but took their final game of the season down to the wire. Crystal Zick scored 20 points in her final game as a Laker, but GVSU still fell to Michigan Tech by a final score of 63-58 in the GLIAC Quarterfinals. GVSU closed the year with a record of 16-12 in head coach Janel Burgess's first season.

The Lakers held a one-point lead with 3:16 left in the game, but could not hold on to advance to the GLIAC Semifinals. Erin Cyplik also played in her last game as a Laker and tallied 14 points to go with four steals and two rebounds. Kim Wyngaard, a junior, added 13 points, five rebounds and three assists. Nicole Carr chipped in eight points and a game-high seven rebounds. GVSU shot 44.2 percent from the field, but were outscored in bench points 24-0.

Grand Valley's first lead of the game came 2:24 into the game when Cyplik hit a jumper to go up 4-3. Cyplik drove into the paint for a layup and Wyngaard buried a jumper of her own to extend the lead to 8-3. Wyngaard's jumper in the paint at the 13:00 mark made it a seven-point game. The Huskies stormed back and took the lead 14-13 with just less than 11 minutes remaining. Wyngaard and Cyplik had scored the first 13 points of the game for the Lakers.

Zick became the third Laker to score when her three-pointer at the 9:50 mark put GVSU up 16-14. MTU scored the next six points before Zick hit a jumper in the paint to make the score 20-18. Tech ripped off the next seven points to go up 27-18. Cyplik closed the half with two free throws, after Wyngaard had made one of her own, to bring the Lakers to within single digits at the break, 30-21. The Huskies outscored the Lakers 15-3 in points off of turnovers.

The lead ballooned to 13 points early in the second half before Jocelyn Ingram nailed a long ball to make it a 10-point game, 34-24, with 18:14 remaining. GVSU trailed by their largest deficit of the game, 14 points, at the 12:36 mark when the score became 47-33. They still trailed by 14 until Zick hit another three-pointer to make the score 50-39 with 9:34 left in the game.

Zick cut the lead to single digits when she hit two free throws to make the score 50-41. GVSU capped off a 12-0 run with a layup by Carr that made the score 20-48 with just 5:58 remaining in the second half. Carr also gave Grand Valley the lead at the 3:16 mark with another layup in the paint, making the score 54-53. The was the last time the Lakers would lead, however, as Tech retook the lead at 55-54. The teams traded baskets, and GVSU was within one point, 59-58, with just 42 seconds left in the game. But Katie Zimmerman, who scored 21 points off the bench for Tech, hit four straight free throws to end the game at 63-58 in favor of the Huskies.