ASHLAND, Ohio.—The third time was the charm for the Grand Valley State women's basketball team, as they dominated the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals from wire to wire in the third matchup between the two, winning by a score of 76-51.  After dropping both regular season matchups with the Cardinals, it was the Lakers who got the last word in, knocking the Cardinals out of the GLIAC Tournament and advancing to their first tournament championship since the 2005-06 season. In that season, the Lakers were coached by Dawn Plitzuweit, and defeated Ashland in the championship game, 78-65.
 
Lindsay Baker led the Lakers with 15 points, all on three pointers., four of which came in  the first half alone.With the five trifectas today, Baker now has 69 on the season, which is the second highest single season mark for three pointers of any Laker in program history. With four more triples this season, Baker would tie Jasmine Padin (2008-09) for the top spot. Taylor Parmley would pace the Lakers with 14 points off of another stellar shooting performance, hitting seven of eight attempts from the field.  Taylor Lutz would add 12 points for the Lakers (22-8), who jumped out to an early 27-9 lead after the first quarter and never relinquished control. 
 
Grand Valley State will now face the Ashland Eagles in the GLIAC Tournament Championship on Sunday, March 6^th. Ashland (28-1) were 68-59 victors over Walsh in the other semifinal game on Saturday, and edged the Lakers in their earlier matchup this season, 72-65 at GVSU Fieldhouse Arena on Thursday, December 3^rd. Tip off for the championship game is set for 1:30 p.m. 

GVSU would hit it's first four shots, a jumper and a layup from Piper Tucker sandwiched between trifectas from Baker and Bailey Cairnduff, taking an early 10-0 lead to begin the game.  After the Cardinals and Lakers exchanged a few buckets, with the score at 17-9 ,the Lakers would go on another 10-0 run to close out the quarter, as Kayla Dawson hit a triple, Parmley hit two consecutive jump shots, and Lindsay Baker hit a triple with just three seconds left to get the margin to 27-9.
 
The second quarter was a different affair, as the Cardinals began to show some signs of life, scoring six straight points to begin the second quarter, and outscore the Lakers 17-16 in the quarter overall. Baker would hit two triples in the quarter, and Tucker would add a pair of buckets to keep pace with the Cardinals. Grand Valley would take a 43-26 lead into halftime.
 
In the third quarter, the Lakers would push their lead to 21 off of back to back triples by Lutz and Cairnduff. Janae Langs then hit a jumper, followed by a pair of Parmley layups, as the Lakers finished up a 12-0 run to get the lead to 27. The Cardinals would get a few baskets back to chip away at the lead, but it would still stand at 23 entering the fourth quarter, after a Cardinal layup.
 
After a Parmley layup to begin the final quarter, the Cardinals would score five quick points to cut the lead down to 20 with nine minutes left to play, and would get it to 18 points off of  a pair of free throws with 4:44 left to play, but that was the closest the Cardinals would get for the remainder, as the Lakers pushed the lead back into the 20's off of a quartet of Bailey Cairnduff free throws and a Lindsay Baker triple. The Lakers would hit a perfect six of six free throws in the final two minutes to close out the final margin at 76-51.
 
Grand Valley shot an impressive 50 percent (26-52) both from the field and from beyond the arc (11-22), as well as hitting 13 of their 15 free throw attempts (86.7 percent).  They held the Cardinals to just 29 percent (18-62) from the field and 25 percent (4-16) from beyond the arc, while outrebounding SVSU 41-31.  The GLIAC's leading scorer and Player of the Year Emily Wendling was held firmly in check, scoring just four points on 2-7 shooting from the field.
 
The Lakers won despite committing more turnovers (16) than the Cardinals (12), thanks to a large scoring disparity from the bench (33-13 in GVSU's favor), led by Baker and Parmley.
 
Katelyn Carriere and Halee Nieman each had 10 for the Cardinals.