MIDLAND, Mich.—The Grand Valley State women's basketball team suffered it's seventh loss of the season, and sixth on the road in an 84-74 decision at Northwood on Saturday. The loss keeps the Lakers (18-7, 13-6 GLIAC) in third place in the highly competitive GLIAC North Division.  Northwood (15-10, 11-8 GLIAC) got 26 points from Lauren Robak, and 20 points from Jordyn Nurenberg in the victory.
 
The contest got off to a high scoring start, with Northwood taking an early 10-5 lead in the first quarter as a result of hitting four of their first five shots. The Lakers climbed back into the game, as Lindsay Baker tied the game at 14-14 with four minutes left in the quarter. The Timberwolves would then go on a 13-6 run in the final minutes of the first quarter, taking a 27-20 lead into the second quarter.  The early difference was four important turnovers by GVSU, which Northwood turned into 10 points for a large momentum swing.
 
The second quarter opened on a more even note, as each team scored seven points within the first three minutes of play. After the Timberwolves expanded the lead to 13 points (40-27) off of a Lauren Robak layup, the Lakers would climb back in once more, getting the lead down to just six points with three and a half minutes left off of a Taylor Parmley layup, down 40-34. A pair of Parmley free throws cut that margin down to four at the three minute mark, and Parmley corralled an offensive board and scored a layup to bring the Lakers within two points, 40-38 with a little more than two minutes left.
 
However Northwood would add a layup to go up by four, and then the two teams would trade buckets to get the score to 44-40. With under a minute left in the half, the Timberwolves would hit a triple to get the margin to seven, and after a pair of Cairnduff free throws cut the lead to five, would close out the half with a layup to take a 49-42 lead at the break. The Timberwolves shot 59.5 percent (22-37) from the field in the first half of play, compared to 46.2 percent (12-26) from the Lakers.
 
As the third quarter began, Northwood would strike first with consecutive layups to push the edge to 53-42. After the two teams traded buckets, Northwood would hit another layup to build the margin to 13 points, 59-46. Making a crucial resurgence, the Lakers opened up a run of seven straight points with a Baker triple at the five minute mark, and then a pair of layups from Parmley to trim the Timberwolves lead to just six points, 59-53. After a Northwood layup, the Lakers got layups from Parmley and Langs to keep the margin at six, 63-57. Kayla Dawson would end the third quarter with a pair of free throws to once again cut the margin to four, which was as close as the Lakers would get for the remainder.
 
Northwould would outscore Grand Valley State 21-15 in the crucial final quarter, and answered every Laker basket with one of their own to keep their lead intact. Northwood got layups at the three and a half minute and three minute marks to push the lead to 10, and, as time wound down and the Lakers were forced to foul, the Timberwolves would hit four straight free throws to stave off any chance for a late comeback.
 
Finishing the game shooting an efficient 46 percent (23-50) from the field, it was not a bad shooting day that did GVSU in, rather it was a combination of 16 turnovers leading to 25 Northwood points, as well as a 40-3o edge in points in the paint for Northwood and a 15-2 edge in fast break points. The loss overshadowed another excellent offensive game from Taylor Parmley, who topped her previous career high of 23 points, set in the February 4^th win against Northern Michigan with 24 points on 9-10 shooting from the field, and a 6-8 effort from the charity stripe.  Kayla Dawson added 15 points, going 10-10 from the line herself, and Lindsay Baker (12 points, 4-4 3-pt FG) and Bailey Cairnduff (11 points) were the other Lakers in double figures.
 
GVSU returns to action on Thursday, February 18^th at 6 p.m. The Lakers will be looking to win one at home against Saginaw Valley State, victors over Grand Valley in the previous matchup between the teams, 68-65. The game will take place at GVSU Fieldhouse Arena, where the Lakers are 11-1 this season and have defeated opponents by an average of 27 points.