Tiffin (Sunday, 3:00 p.m.): Watch | Listen | Live Stats | Game Notes
 
Ohio Dominican (Tuesday, 8:00 p.m.): Watch | Listen | Live Stats | Game Notes
 
The Grand Valley State men's basketball team is back inside the Fieldhouse Arena - an unfamiliar venue for the Lakers - as the team hosts two Ohio schools for upcoming doubleheaders against Tiffin and Ohio Dominican. GVSU, which has been away from Allendale in six of its first seven games, looks to rebound after a tough road trip to start GLIAC play last weekend.
 
On Sunday afternoon, Grand Valley State welcomes Tiffin (3-4 overall, 0-2 GLIAC) to town for a 3:00 p.m. start. The Lakers will host Ohio Dominican (1-5 overall, 0-2 GLIAC) on Tuesday evening at 8:00 p.m. It is the start of a three-game home stretch to close out 2014.
 
GVSU brings a 3-4 record into the upcoming games after losing both GLIAC contests in Ohio last weekend. Last Thursday (Dec. 4), the Lakers suffered a 93-92 loss at Ashland in a game that lasted four overtimes. Two days later, Lake Erie topped Grand Valley State by a 73-60 final score.
 
There were quite a few notable achievements and occurrences in the four-overtime battle against Ashland. Sophomore forward Trevin Alexander set a new career-high with 17 points and shattered his previous career-high with 25 rebounds. Alexander's total is the most by a Laker since at least the 1978 season and just five rebounds shy of the GVSU single game record. No Laker player had even recorded 20 rebounds in a game since 1978.
 
Alexander - whose previous high rebounding total was 12 - is now the Division II leader with his 25-rebound effort. No other Division I player has recorded 25 rebounds in a game this season. The only college basketball player to top Alexander's output was Mirko Grcic of Division III Loras, who pulled down 26 boards against Edgewood on Nov. 15.
 
In the same recruiting class as Alexander, sophomore guard Luke Ryskamp poured in a career-high 29 points, the most by any GVSU player this season. Ryskamp's previous career-high was 17 points at Malone last January. He made 9-of-14 field goal attempts (3-of-5 three-pointers) and 8-of-11 free throw tries.
 
The real story of the game, however, was the four overtimes it took to decide a winner. Grand Valley State has never played a longer game in its history, only going to four overtimes on one other occasion. The Lakers lost 83-81 to Northern Michigan on Feb. 16, 1983 in Allendale in quadruple overtime. In fact, GVSU had not made it to more than one overtime since Nov. 28, 1983.

Only one other college basketball game this season (in any NCAA Division) went as long as the GVSU-Ashland marathon. Division I High Point topped Bakersfield at home, 100-99, in four OT's on Nov. 14.
 
Out of its opening seven games, Grand Valley State has only been at home for one - a 71-56 victory over Cedarville on Nov. 22. The Lakers return to their friendly home venue, where they've been successful in conference home opener. GVSU has won its last seven GLIAC home openers, dating back to the 2007-08 season. Head coach Ric Wesley is 9-1 in the first home conference game each season.
 
When Grand Valley State faced these two teams in Allendale in the 2012-13 season, the Lakers won both contests. GVSU topped Tiffin 66-52 on Dec. 6, 2012, before defeating Ohio Dominican 67-58 two days later.
 
Furthermore, Wesley has never lost to either of the two Ohio schools. He owns a 14-0 combined record, which breaks down to a 10-0 mark against Tiffin and a 4-0 record versus Ohio Dominican. He is a combined 7-0 against the Dragons and Panthers in Allendale.
 
Tiffin shares the same record as the Lakers and has had a back-and-forth start to the season. The Dragons alternated wins and losses in its first six games before dropping consecutive GLIAC games at home to Hillsdale and Saginaw Valley State last weekend. However, those losses were by a combined five points, losing 49-47 to Hillsdale and falling to SVSU, 69-66.
 
The Dragons have just one double-digit scorer - junior forward Khaleal McCormick at 13.6 ppg. - but four more players are scoring at least eight points per game. Senior guard Ashton Khan is putting up 9.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, while dishing out a team-best 25 assists. Junior Chrisean Marsden paces TU with 6.0 rebounds per game and is shooting 58.1 percent from the field, while chipping in 8.6 points per game.
 
Ohio Dominican has suffered a pair of three-game losing streaks, broken up by its lone win of the season, an 89-69 defeat of Notre Dame (Ohio) on Nov. 19. All six of the Panthers losses, though, have been by 12 points or less, including close defeats against Saginaw Valley State (73-69) and Hillsdale (75-65) last week in Columbus. ODU is 0-3 thus far in road or neutral site games.
 
The Panthers have three juniors in their starting lineup scoring in double figures. Forward Trent Weaver leads ODU with 15.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, while guard Mark Minch is putting up 14.3 points per game and shooting 48.0 percent from the field. The third member of the group - guard Chad Nelson - is scoring 13.3 ppg and is the top Panther in three-pointers (10), while handing out 16 assists.
 
The Lakers will finish 2014 with a non-conference game (its last of the season) against Purdue-North Central next Saturday (Dec. 20) at 1:00 p.m.