The Grand Valley State men's basketball team officially opened their 2015-16 season Saturday (Nov. 14) evening with a solid 76-67 win over the visiting Hawks of Quincy University in the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge.
 
GVSU shot 42.6% from the field on the night, and went 5-12 from beyond the arc in the win while limiting Quincy to 6-19 from the three-point line on the game and 0-7 in the second half. Grand Valley State scored 28 points inside the paint and 21 points off Quincy turnovers. The Lakers outrebounded the Hawks 38-33 and only committed nine turnovers to their opponent's 12.
 
Four Lakers reached double figures in the win, with senior guard Aaron Hayes and junior guard Luke Ryskamp leading the way with 17 points each and junior forward Trevin Alexander pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds. Sophomore guard Miles Miller put up a career-high 15 points in the win, and senior forward Ricardo Carbajal tallied 10 points and seven rebounds for the Lakers.
 
Senior forward Chaz Rollins scored the game's first points on a layup and the teams traded points for the first five minutes with neither team holding a lead larger than two points. A Quincy three-pointer at 14:24 kicked off a 9-2 run for the Hawks to give them their largest lead of the contest of nine. The Hawks held the Lakers off the board for six minutes before a Carbajal layup ended the scoring drought.
 
GVSU battled back with a Carbajal jumper to make it a three-score game with 7:03 left in the half before Quincy built their lead to five on two occasions. The Lakers then took their first lead since early in the half at 2:58 with a Ryskamp three to make it a 29-28 contest. The teams continued to trade points until halftime, when Thomas Jackson gave Quincy a two-point lead with a three-pointer at the buzzer, putting the score at 37-35 going into the break.
 
13 lead changes highlighted an even first half between the two non-conference opponents. GVSU shot 42.3% from the field and 33.3% from downtown, but the Hawks buried 50% of their three-point attempts and 46.7% of their shots from the floor to hold a two-point advantage.
 
Quincy jumped out to another big lead at the start of the second half, scoring 14 of the first 22 points of the half to jump out to a 57-52 lead with 9:24 to go in the contest. A Miller jumper at 8:52 brought the Lakers to within three and kickstarted a run that would give them their final lead of the game. A 14-2 run and nine unanswered points put Grand Valley State on top 67-59 with 3:48 remaining on the clock. The Hawks came to within three with 1:29 left in the game, but Miller scored four of the team's final six points to put the game out of reach for the visitors.
 
Grand Valley State hosts Missouri-St. Louis on Sunday (Nov. 15) at 4 pm in their second game of the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge. The Laker-Triton game will follow the opening game at 2 pm between Ferris State and Quincy.