SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—A change of scenery seemed to do the 19^th ranked Grand Valley State women's basketball team good on Friday, as the Lakers pulled away from defending national champions and 24^th ranked Lubbock Christian in the fourth quarter to win, 52-45. The opening game for GVSU in the Puerto Rico Clasico and first away from GVSU Fieldhouse arena this season was far from pretty, as the team shot just 38 percent from the field, but the Lakers made key shots down the stretch to improve to 3-1 on the season.
 
Janae Langs continued her strong start to the season for the Lakers, as she scored 15 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and corralled four rebounds in the victory. Classmate Bailey Cairnduff added 13 points for GVSU (5-12 FG, 3-6 3Pt.).
 
Grand Valley State scored the opening points of the game off of a jumper by Taylor Lutz, and jumped out to an early 7-3 lead before the Lady Chaps scored four straight points to tie the score up at 7-7 with 45 seconds left in the first period. A Taylor Parmley layup then gave the Lakers a 9-7 lead to end the first period.
 
In the second quarter, the Lady Chaps twice took small leads over the Lakers, including a 15-12 lead with 4:48 left in the half. However the Lakers would score seven straight points to close out the half, including five from Langs, to take a 19-15 lead into the half.
 
After a Lubbock Christian basket to start the third quarter, the Lakers built up a nice lead in the third quarter, capped off by a Langs triple to push the margin to 12 points with 4:40 left in the third quarter. A 12-2 run by the Lady Chaps then closed out the third quarter, leaving GVSU only a narrow two-point lead and making it anyone's game going into the final quarter.
 
After a Cairnduff triple made the lead five points shortly into the fourth quarter, Lubbock Christian answered with a triple of their own. Similarly, a jumper by Piper Tucker with 8:52 left was answered by Lubbock a few possessions later, as the reigning champions refused to go down quietly. Finally, the Lakers began to pull away in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
 
A layup and a free throw by Langs pushed the lead to five points with 4:45 left in the game, and was followed by a Kayla Dawson jumper at 3:21 and a Cairnduff layup with 2:58 left to push the GVSU lead to nine points. After a Lubbock Christian triple cut that down to six points, Dawson hit a pair of free throws and Lutz hit a single free throw to bring the game to the final margin of 52-45.
 
The Lakers were aided by numerous miscues from the Chaparrals, who committed 21 turnovers on the day, leading to 17 Laker points off those turnovers. GVSU was outrebounded by the Lady Chaps, 36-25, and had their bench outscored by an 18-8 margin.
 
GVSU returns to action tomorrow, as they face the University of Indianapolis in the second game of the Clasico. That game is set for a 1:00 p.m. start.