The Grand Valley State men's basketball team used a convincing 17-2 run over the final five minutes to close out visiting Lake Superior State by an 84-70 final score on Thursday night (Feb. 11) in Allendale. GVSU used a 30-9 edge in made free throws to split the season series with the other Lakers, moving to 10-4 at home on the year.

On Jan. 21 in Sault Ste. Marie, Grand Valley State dropped an 82-74 overtime heartbreaker to Lake Superior State, but GVSU was able to exact revenge on Thursday night. The win pushes Grand Valley State to 16-8 on the season and 10-8 in GLIAC play. Lake Superior State drops to 16-8 overall and 11-7 in conference action.

Four Lakers reached double figures, led by a combined 44 points from junior Luke Ryskamp and senior Chaz Rollins. Ryskamp was 9-of-14 from the field and totaled 24 points and five rebounds in 32 minutes, while Rollins notched 20 points, eight boards, and two blocks in 28 minutes off the bench. Rollins went 7-of-9 from the field to help GVSU owne a 31-14 advantage in bench points.

Senior guard Aaron Hayes made 9-of-12 freebies and finished with 17 points, six boards, four assists, and zero turnovers. Junior Trevin Alexander provided 11 points, four boards, and a pair of steals.

Hayes' zero turnovers was a pretty common theme for most of the team on Thursday. In the overtime loss in January to LSSU, Grand Valley State committed a season-high 28 turnovers. In the rematch on Thursday, that number dwindled down to just eight turnovers, with no player having more than two miscues.

GVSU raced out to a 10-3 lead in the opening minutes, with Hayes scoring five points and teaming with Ryskamp for back-to-back trifectas. After Lake Superior State took a brief 16-15 lead, an Alexander three-pointer and a pair of free throws from senior Ricardo Carbajal and freshman Justin Greason put the home Lakers back in front 22-16 with 10:31 remaining.

The teams traded baskets for a majority of the rest of the half, but Grand Valley State finished the opening 20 minutes with a 35-34 halftime lead. In the first half, Lake Superior State shot 40.6 percent from the field, but was just 3-of-15 from three-point range, while GVSU shot 37.0 percent. The difference was Grand Valley State's 11-16 shooting at the free throw line; Lake State was 5-for-5.

Consecutive buckets from Rollins and Ryskamp put GVSU in front 55-45 with 12:44 to play and the home Lakers would have that 10-point advantage on two more occasions before Lake Superior State began to chip away. It was 61-51 with 10:05 to go when the visiting Lakers made their run. 

Lake Superior State nailed a trio of three-pointers, with the third putting the visitors back on top 68-67 at the 6:16 mark. From there, it was all Grand Valley State. Over the final 6:16, 17 of the 19 points scored were on GVSU's side.

Rollins scored on a layup to put Grand Valley State back in front, followed by a three-pointer from Hayes. A minute later, Hayes hit two free throws and Alexander hit a clutch jumper from the top of the key to push the score out to 76-68 with two minutes to play. After a LSSU layup, GVSU went 8-for-10 at the stripe in the final 1:02, with Hayes knocking down five of those freebies.

19 of Ryskamp's 24 points came in the second half, Hayes added 12 in the last 20 minutes, and Rollins scored 10 points in each half. Freshman guard Zach West took just three shots in a team-high 33 minutes, but recorded a career-best nine rebounds and led the Lakers with a +19 plus/minus ratio in the win.

Overall, Grand Valley State shot 46.2 percent from the floor and went 30-for-41 at the line. Lake Superior State was 9-of-33 from three-point range, went 9-of-12 at the charity stripe, and shot 41.3 percent from the field. LSSU's Akaemji Williams led all players with 28 points and 10 assists, while Devin Daly added 17 points on 5-of-14 shooting.

The lead changed hands 12 times and there were four tie scores. 

GVSU travels to Midland to take on Northwood at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday night (Feb. 13). The Lakers defeated the Timberwolves 66-53 on Jan. 23 in Allendale.