Nov. 30, 2013

Box Score

CEDARVILLE, Ohio - A dominating first half led the Grand Valley State men's basketball team to an 83-69 victory in non-conference action over Cedarville on Saturday (Nov. 30) afternoon. 

The Lakers scored the first 13 points of the game and never looked back, downing the Yellow Jackets to move to 3-0 on the season. Cedarville falls to 1-6 on the year. GVSU will be back in action on Thursday (Dec. 5) evening, when the Lakers open GLIAC play with an 8 p.m. tilt against Ashland at Grand Rapids Community College's Ford Fieldhouse.

The Lakers controlled the game early, holding Cedarville off the scoreboard for the first seven minutes, jumping out to a 13-0 lead before the Yellow Jackets were able to get a bucket.

From there, Cedarville made a run of their own, scoring 12 of the next 18 points to cut the Laker lead to 19-12 before hitting the third media timeout of the half with 7:52 to play in the opening stanza.

Another GVSU run followed the timeout, as the Lakers got 12 straight points to go up 31-12, punctuated by a lay-up from Ricardo Carbajal before Cedarville could halt the scoring. The teams picked up the final media timeout of the half with the Lakers out front, 33-14 with 3:43 to play in the first half.

The final three minutes ticked off with the teams exchanging buckets, as GVSU went in to the locker room with a 42-19 lead. Carbajal had nine points on 4-of-8 shooting in the first half, while Chaz Rollins and Rob Woodson each had six. The main culprit for Cedarville's 19 points were 18 first-half turnovers.

It was a much different second half for the Yellow Jackets, as Cedarville blitzed the Lakers with 50 second half points that cut the GVSU lead to six at 73-67 with 2:21 to play in the game.

The biggest play may have been a clutch block of a three-pointer by Ryan Sabin with 1:41 to play that was then rebounded by Ernijs Ansons, who was fouled and hit both free throws to push the lead back out to 75-67 with 1:38 left in the game.

GVSU kept the solid free throw shooting going down the stretch, as the Lakers preserved the 83-69 victory as GVSU was 14-of-17 on free throws in the second half.

Carbajal was the leading scorer for the Lakers with 15 points and nine rebounds, as he paced four GVSU players who scored in double digits. It is the third straight game to start the season that Carbajal has pulled down nine boards.

Eight players scored seven or more points for GVSU in the contest, including Woodson with 14.