Jan. 19, 2012

Box Score

Marquette, Mich. - The Grand Valley State men's basketball team began their annual upper peninsula trip on Thursday (Jan. 19) with a contest at Northern Michigan. Despite junior Breland Hogan's career-high seven steals, the Lakers dropped the game by a 62-57 score.

It was back-and-forth action to begin the game, as the Lakers went down 8-2 only three minutes in to the game. They battled back and only three minutes later, had cut the lead to 10-8. The comeback was short-lived, however, as the Wildcats went on a six point run to go up 16-8 at the halfway mark of the first half.

Northern Michigan would hold a comfortable lead the remainer of the half, going into the locker room with a 30-25 lead.

The Lakers shot only 33.3-percent in the first half, going 9-for-27 from the field and were led by senior James Thomas' eight points and six rebounds. It was turnovers which plagued GVSU in the first half as they committed seven turnovers and had only two assists.

The second half began with the Lakers on fire, as they scored the first six points of the half to take their first lead of the game at 31-30 with 16:39 to play in the game.

GVSU extended the lead out to 37-32 with 14:23 to play after a Hogan layup, but that was when the Wildcats made their comeback.

Northern Michigan went on a 12-2 run after the Hogan layup and took a 44-39 lead. The Wildcats held a comfortable lead until the Lakers cut it to a three point deficit at 59-56 with 1:04 to play in the game. After senior Nick Waddell went to the line and hit one of two free throws to pull the Lakers within two, Northern Michigan hit their own free throws down the stretch to keep hold of their lead and shut GVSU out the rest of the way, taking the 62-57 victory.

Hogan led the Lakers with 15 points and seven steals. The seven thefts are the most by a Laker since Alvin Storrs had seven steals at Wayne State on January 23rd, 2010.

Thomas racked up another double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. The 11 boards were a game-high.

GVSU shot a blistering 55.6-percent (10-for-18) from the floor in the second half, but were again plagued by turnovers. The Lakers finished the game with only three assists compared to 15 turnovers.

Both teams were 19-for-45 (42.2-percent) from the floor, but GVSU struggled from beyond the arc, hitting only 18.8-percent of their attempts (3-for-16) from downtown.

The Wildcats were led by Matthew Craggs, who had 14 points to lead Northern Michigan and a team-high seven rebounds.

GVSU falls to 9-7 on the year with an even 5-5 mark in the GLIAC while Northern Michigan improves to 8-8 on the year with a 4-5 record in the conference.

The Lakers will finish their upper peninsula trip on Saturday (Jan. 21) when they take on Michigan Tech at 3 p.m. in Houghton, Mich.