Needing a win against its West Michigan rivals on Senior Night in Allendale, the Grand Valley State men's basketball team came up with a third straight strong home effort and defeated the visiting Bulldogs 78-69 to close the regular season. GVSU outscored Ferris State 57-42 in the second half and the win clinched a berth in next week's GLIAC Tournament for the Lakers.

Going into the game, Grand Valley State needed to defeat Ferris State and also needed Northwood to lose at Lake Superior State, as GVSU and the Timberwolves were tied at 11-10 in conference play. The final score of Lake Superior State 96, Northwood 94 became official late in the second half of Grand Valley State's game in Allendale and when the final horn sounded, the Lakers were made aware that they had - in fact - clinched a conference tournament berth.

The win puts GVSU at 18-10 overall and 12-10 in GLIAC action, while Ferris State drops to 19-9 on the year and 13-9 in conference play. Next Tuesday night (Mar. 1), the seventh-seeded Lakers will travel to Ohio to take on second-seeded Ashland at 7:30 p.m. Ferris State will also head to Ohio and match up with Findlay.

A huge second half propelled Grand Valley State from a six-point halftime deficit (27-21) to the final nine-point victory. The Lakers made 11 consecutive shots in the second half (four of which were from three-point range) to outscore FSU 57-42 over the final 20 minutes. Not only did GVSU shoot 58.6 percent from the field in the second half, but it was 5-of-8 on three-point attempts, and 18-of-24 at the free throw line.

The main recipient of those second half free throws was guard Aaron Hayes, who celebrated Senior Night in style. After being held scoreless in the first half, Hayes notched 21 second-half points and made 16-of-17 free throw tries. He finished the game by adding five rebounds and four assists. Hayes' 16 made free throws ties the GVSU record, set by Steve Harvey back in 1990 against Lake Superior State. Harvey went 16-for-16 in that performance; Hayes started 13-for-13 at the line before missing his 14th attempt with 18 seconds remaining.

A frequent visitor to the free throw line, Hayes is now 141-for-183 at the charity stripe this season. He leads all GLIAC players in free throw attempts and is second in made free throws. Hayes' 141 made freebies this season are the eighth-most in a single season in GVSU history; he is the first Laker to reach the top-10 in that category since John Flynn in 2001-02.

Sharing game-high scoring honors with Hayes was junior guard Luke Ryskamp with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting. He was 3-of-6 from three-point range and 4-of-6 at the line, while adding six rebounds. Forward Chaz Rollins also enjoyed Senior Night, as he tallied 12 points, 11 rebounds, and a pair of blocked shots.

The game got off to a slow start, with just eight combined points in the first seven minutes. Ferris State pulled ahead 14-5 after a 9-0 run, but the Lakers started to chip away at the deficit. Another senior - forward Ricardo Carbajal - nailed a three-pointer and added a layup to bring GVSU within three points at 21-18 with 2:47 to go. FSU led at the half, 27-24.

When the second half started, however, the Lakers looked like a completely different team. Grand Valley State made its first 11 shots in the half: a Hayes three-pointer, a Hayes jumper (part of an old-fashioned three-point play), a Carbajal layup, a Rollins layup, another Carbajal layup, a jumper from junior Trevin Alexander, two Ryskamp three-pointers, a trifecta from freshman Zach West, a Rollins layup, and a fastbreak layup from West. After West went coast-to-coast and finished with the bucket, the Lakers went from down 27-21 to on top 56-43. 

The game was back down to single-digits (56-49) when Rollins drained the first three-pointer of his GVSU career. The 6'8" senior was 0-for-3 from beyond the arc in his career prior to draining the triple and putting the Lakers in front 59-49 with eight minutes left. Grand Valley State's next basket was equally impressive, as Alexander rebounded a Bulldog miss, threw a football-style pass down the floor to Ryskamp, who caught it over his shoulder and - in stride - made a spin move into the paint, lost his defender and finished with the fastbreak layup. 

Ferris State would get no closer than seven points the remainder of the game, as Hayes would go 9-of-10 at the line in the last minute to clinch the victory.

The Lakers shot 46.3 percent from the field in the game and outrebounded Ferris State (the GLIAC's top rebounding team) by a 41-34 margin. GVSU was an efficient 7-of-12 from three-point range and shot 21-of-32 at the line.

FSU had just one player in double-digits, as backup center Zach Hankins had 10 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks. The Bulldogs shot 41.2 percent from the floor and were 7-of-28 from three-point range.

There were 2,424 fans inside the Fieldhouse Arena on Thursday night, marking the largest crowd since Feb. 25, 2012, when 2,606 fans saw Ferris State top GVSU by a 63-56 final.

Grand Valley State and Ashland have not played Dec. 3, 2015, when the Eagles escaped Allendale with a 76-72 overtime victory. It was the first GLIAC game for both teams this season and because of GVSU's victory in its final regular season game, the teams will have a rematch on Tuesday in Ohio.