PAINESVILLE, Ohio.—The 21^st ranked Grand Valley State women's basketball team jumped out to an early lead in Saturday afternoon's game against Lake Erie, only to see that lead nearly slip away in the second half. A three-pointer by senior Taylor Lutz with 1:25 left in the game sealed the road win for the Lakers after being outscored 28-19 in the second half.
 
The late triple by Lutz was just her second basket of the game, but was clutch when the Lakers needed it the most. Taylor Parmley led the way with 11 points, while Janae Langs and Piper Tucker each chipped in 10 points. Langs was one rebound short of a double-double, with nine, while forward Kayla Dawson finished with seven rebounds and Parmley, six. 
 
Shooting woes troubled both teams in the early going, and would continue throughout the game, with the Lakers shooting just 31.6 percent (18-57) and the Storm managing just 36.4 percent (20-55). The first quarter belonged to Langs, however, as the guard hit her first three shots (and a free throw) of the game, two of which were three-pointers, to score the first nine points of the game. The Storm would not score their first points until nearly six minutes had elapsed in the quarter, and managed just seven points before quarters end after shooting 3-13 from the field.
 
After a Tucker layup to open the second quarter, neither team would score for four minutes until Lake Erie scored two buckets in a row to cut the Laker lead to 19-11 with 4:32 left in the half. After a pair of Storm buckets with less than a minute left made the score 28-17, GVSU beat the buzzer with a Lindsay Baker triple to close out the first half with a 31-17 lead.
 
In the third quarter, the two teams traded buckets back and forth, keep the margin close to what it had been at the half. With a second Baker triple with three minutes left in the quarter, the Lakers pushed their lead to a game-high 18, 42-24. From that point on, the Storm closed out the quarter on a 9-1 run to trim the lead to just ten points, 43-33 ahead of the final quarter of play.
 
Trading baskets twice in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter of play, the teams remained 10 points apart with seven minutes remaining, before the Storm went on another run. As the Lakers missed several shots down the stretch, Lake Erie scored four straight buckets to close the margin to just two points with 1:40 left to go in the game. Enter Lutz, who stepped up in a critical moment to hit the dagger three just 15 seconds later to put the Lakers back up by five points. A Storm turnover on the next possession followed by a late 3-pointer miss forced the home squad to foul the Lakers and put Bailey Cairnduff on the line. Cairnduff, a 92 percent shooter on the season heading into the contest, uncharacteristically missed both free throws, but the Storm missed two shots on the other end to end their upset bid.
 
Grand Valley State, which led wire-to-wire in the road contest, was narrowly outrebounded (39-38) and outscored in the paint (16-14), but got a stronger effort from the bench (19-7).