Feb. 20, 2010

Box Score

University Center, Mich. - Grand Valley State notched its second impressive road victory in a row on Saturday night (Feb. 20), as the Lakers defeated Saginaw Valley State 66-53 in University Center, Mich. GVSU held the Cardinals to just 32.1 percent shooting, while the Lakers connected on 45.7 percent of its field goals and had three players score in double figures in the victory.

With the win, Grand Valley State improves to 19-6 overall and 15-5 in the GLIAC, while Saginaw Valley State drops to 15-10 on the year with a 12-8 mark in conference play. The Lakers remain in a first-place tie with Findlay at the top of the GLIAC standings. Coupled with the 75-73 win over Lake Superior State on Thursday night, GVSU improves to 9-4 on the road this season.

After falling behind 3-0, the Lakers put together a 14-1 run to take a commanding 14-4 lead just six and a half minutes into the game. Grand Valley State used scores from five different players to gain the advantage. Freshman guard Breland Hogan, coming off a career-high 12 points and the game-winning free throws with 1.5 seconds left against LSSU, had five points in the 14-1 run and guard Tony Peters drained a triple to close out the run.

Junior Mike Przydzial made a jumper with 9:44 left to put the Lakers ahead at 18-8 and a three-pointer from junior K'Len Morris kept that 10-point advantage at 23-13 with 6:20 remaining. Peters would knock down another trifecta to give GVSU its biggest lead of the half at 27-16 with 5:28 left. The Lakers took a 32-24 lead into halftime after shooting 55.0 percent from the field and making 4-of-7 three-point attempts. SVSU shot just 29.6 percent, but stayed close with 6-of-13 triple tries finding the bottom of the net in the opening 20 minutes.

Consecutive buckets from sophomore Alvin Storrs and junior Justin Ringler put Grand Valley State on top by 10 points early in the second half, 36-26. Saginaw Valley State rallied back by scoring eight straight points and cutting the Laker lead to 36-34. GVSU pushed the score back out to a 47-40 advantage with four points from Morris, including a three-pointer at the 13:55 mark.

Leading 50-45 midway through the half, Storrs converted an old-fashioned three-point play and a minute later, a Hogan three-pointer upped the lead to 56-46 with 7:30 left in the game. A Storrs jumper and two free throws from Ringler gave the Lakers a 61-50 advantage with 2:15 remaining, which would be more than enough to close out the victory. Hogan also drained four free throws in the final 70 seconds to hold off the Cardinals.

Grand Valley State shot 45.7 percent for the game and owned a nine-point advantage at the line, making 18-of-29 attempts, while SVSU connected on just 9-of-20 freebies. The Lakers were able to overcome 10 Cardinal three-pointers by scoring 15 points off of 11 SVSU turnovers. GVSU also owned a 15-5 edge in bench points and a 24-14 advantage in points in the paint, while Saginaw Valley State shot just 32.1 percent from the floor.

For the second straight game, Hogan set a career-high in points. On Saturday, the rookie point guard led the Lakers with 17 points, as he shot 4-of-6 from the field and 7-of-8 at the charity stripe. He added four rebounds and a steal in 31 minutes.

Ringler and Storrs each tallied 13 points for GVSU. Totaling a game-high eight rebounds, Ringler shot 4-of-10 from the field and added three assists and two steals. Storrs was 6-of-11 from the floor, while also notching four rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a blocked shot. Morris had seven points off the bench.

The Lakers return home after a 2-2 road trip to take on Wayne State on Thursday night (Feb. 25). GVSU and the Warriors are scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. tipoff.