Jan. 28, 2010

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Allendale, Mich. - Grand Valley State had no problem with visiting Michigan Tech on Thursday night (Jan. 28), as the Lakers cruised to a 59-42 victory, pushing their winning streak to 11 straight games. GVSU owned a 17-point halftime advantage and the win put the team's home record at 8-1, including seven consecutive home victories.

The Lakers are now 15-3 overall with an 11-2 record in the GLIAC, while Michigan Tech falls to 4-14 on the year with a 3-10 conference tally. GVSU has not lost since a Dec. 12 game at Findlay and the Lakers have not tasted defeat at home since Nov. 21. Grand Valley State's 11 straight wins is tied for the fifth-longest win streak in school history. The 17-point victory was the Lakers' largest win during the 11-game streak and second biggest margin of victory on the season.

GVSU scored 10 of the game's first 12 points, leading 10-2 at the 15:33 mark. The 10 points were all scored by Laker juniors, as Justin Ringler and Mike Przydzial each had four points and forward Toreau Brown added a jumper. Sophomore Alvin Storrs scored four straight points and Przydzial added another jumper to extend the advantage to 18-6 with just over 11 minutes remaining.

When Michigan Tech rallied to cut the score to 18-13, Grand Valley State scored the next eight points - four points each from Ringler and Brown - to push the score to 26-13 just under the four-minute mark. Approaching halftime, Storrs scored on a layup and a fast break slam dunk and the Lakers took a commanding 31-14 lead into intermission.

In the opening 20 minutes, GVSU shot 52.0 percent from the field, making 13-of-25 shots. The Lakers forced 11 Michigan Tech turnovers, while the Huskies connected on just 27.8 percent of their field goal attempts. Grand Valley State owned large advantages in points in the paint (14-4), points off of turnovers (14-1), and bench points (11-1) in the opening frame.

The Laker lead got pushed to 20 points early in the second half on a pair of free throws from Brown. At that point, GVSU led 36-16 with only two minutes gone in the half. Michigan Tech trailed 42-26 before sophomore center Nick West made a pair of free throws and junior K'Len Morris threw down a big dunk to up the lead to 47-26 at the 12:33 mark. Grand Valley State would own at least a 20-point lead for the rest of the half, up until the final minute, when Michigan Tech would make four free throws to make the final deficit just 17 points.

For the game, GVSU shot 45.0 percent from the field and made 23-of-30 free throws for a 76.7 percent clip. The Lakers did not connect on a three-point field goal, as they were 0-for-9 from beyond the arc, but they used a 22-12 advantage in points in the paint and a dominating 21-4 edge in points off of turnovers to cruise to the win. Michigan Tech shot just 34.2 percent for the game, made only 5-of-18 three-pointers, and turned the ball over 20 times.

Brown led all players with 13 points in just 19 minutes. He shot 3-of-5 from the field and was perfect on all seven free throw attempts. Brown added four rebounds. Storrs put up 11 points, four rebounds, three assists, and four steals. He was 5-of-7 from the field and it was the fifth game this season Storrs has tallied four or more steals in a game. His seven steals last Saturday against Wayne State is the most in the conference this season and his 2.1 steals per game places him fourth in the league.

Przydzial added 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, as he played just 18 minutes. None of the starting five played more than 19 minutes, as 11 Lakers saw double-figures in minutes. Sophomore Wes Trammell led GVSU with five rebounds.

Grand Valley State heads to the court again on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 30) against Northern Michigan at 3:00 p.m.