The Grand Valley State men's basketball team claimed an impressive 83-63 GLIAC home win Thursday evening at the GVSU Fieldhouse Arena. The Lakers improve to 12-3 overall and 6-3 in GLIAC action, while Northern Michigan falls to 4-9 overall and 2-7 in league action. GVSU will host Michigan Tech Saturday at 3 p.m. in a Black Out contest. 

Senior forward Ricardo Carbajal got GVSU on the board first with a pair of free throws and following a Wildcat triple, junior guard Luke Ryskamp drained a three-pointer of his own to give GVSU a 5-3 advantage. Northern Michigan took a brief 12-11 lead with a pair of free throws, but junior forward Trevin Alexander drilled a three-pointer with the shot clock winding down to give the Lakers a lead (14-12) they would never give up. Ryskamp hit a pair of free throws with 8:45 left in the first half to give the Lakers a 22-17 lead and started a 24-6 run that would build the lead to 21 (44-23) after 20 minutes of action. Senior guard Aaron Hayes and Alexander each scored seven points in the run, while Ryskamp, Carbajal and senior guard Darren Kapustka each scored two.

The Lakers shot 46.7 percent from the floor in the first half and turned the ball over just two times, while the Wildcats shot just 30.4 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 10 times. GVSU also got 19 points off the bench in the opening 20 minutes. 

Alexander hit a pair from the charity stripe at the 14:35 mark of the second half to push the lead to 21 points (56-35) and from that point on the lead was never below 20 points. The Grand Valley State lead would reach 32 points (78-46) on a dunk by senior forward Chaz Rollins with 6:22 left in the game. GVSU scored 24 points in the paint, 12 off NMU turnovers and tallied 12 second chance points in the second half.

Ryskamp led five Lakers in double figures with 18 points, while Alexander notched a season-high 16 points in 17 minutes of action. Hayes added 16 points and Carbajal 13 points and five rebounds. Rollins scored 10 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds in 11 minutes of play. Freshman center Justin Greason pulled down six rebounds and Kapustka dished out a game-high seven assists, giving him 32 assists and just four turnovers in the last five games. 

GVSU shot 47.5 percent from the floor (28-59) and 75.0 percent from the charity stripe (24-32), while also outrebounding Northern Michigan 39-28, including a 20-11 advantage on the offensive glass.