The Grand Valley State men's basketball team dropped a 77-70 GLIAC road decision Saturday afternoon at Hillsdale College. The Lakers fall to 17-10 overall and 11-10 in GLIAC action. GVSU will host Ferris State Thursday (Feb. 25) in the regular season finale at 8 p.m.

GVSU and Hillsdale matched buckets for the opening four minutes as junior guard Luke Ryskamp hit a pair of triples and senior forward Ricardo Carbajal added a short jumper. The Chargers took a 10-8 lead at the 15:08 mark of the first half and built that lead to 28-13 on a Kyle Cooper jumper with 8:47 left in the opening stanza. The Lakers answered with a 10-0 scoring run to pull within five (28-23) as freshman guard Zach West hit a pair of three-pointers and senior forward Chaz Rollins scored four points. Rollins ended nearly four minutes of scoreless play by both teams with a pair of free throws to get GVSU back to within five (30-25) with 1:33 left in the first half and Carbajal drilled a three-pointer with just three ticks left to get the Lakers within four points (32-38) at the break.

Carbajal opened the second half with a three-point play, but Hillsdale was able to maintain a lead until Carbajal tied the game (57-57) with a free throw at the 5:57 mark. Junior forward Trevin Alexander gave GVSU its first lead (58-57) with a free throw following a double technical and Aaron Hayes scored seven consecutive points, the last of which was a three-point play to up the Laker lead to six (65-59) with 3:57 remaining in the game.

However, Hillsdale answered with a 17-0 run over the next 3:41 to build a 76-65 advantage and seal the win. Hayes scored five points in the final 16 seconds giving him the Lakers' final 12 points in the last 3:57 of the game.

Hayes led the Lakers with 24 points, while Rollins added 11 points and nine rebounds. Carbajal chipped in 11 points, West added eight, while Alexander scored six points and pulled down nine rebounds.