Box Score BIG RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Valley State Lakers opened the 2017-18 season in heartbreaking fashion Friday night; falling on a three-pointer in the final seconds to the Missouri-St. Louis Tritons, 64-62, at Jim Wink Arena as part of the GLIAC/GLVC Crossover.
Drake Baar had a game-high 19 points and three blocks to lead the Lakers while
Hunter Hale and
Ben Lubitz each also scored in double figures.
Chris Pearl hauled in 11 rebounds and put up six points in his debut.
The Lakers (0-1, 0-0 GLIAC) shot 41.4% from the field (24-58) while making seven of 21 three-point attempts, but went 0-for-5 from beyond the arc in the second half. The Lakers put up a gaudy 42 points in the first half, but were limited to just 20 in the second period. The Lakers got 25 points from their bench in the game, a majority of which was Baar's 19 points. The Lakers had the edge in physicality Friday, out-rebounding UMSL 42-33 in the game and blocking seven shots.
The Lakers got off to a hot start, with Hale scoring eight of the team's first 10 points while also collecting a steal and a block within the first five minutes to lead GVSU to a 10-5 lead at the first media timeout. Baar then flurried with seven points over the next four minutes but good three-point shooting from the Tritons kept them within a point, 20-19, midway through the opening half. After the teams traded the lead four times over the next few minutes, the Lakers tightened up down the stretch and out-scored UMSL 9-2 over the final five minutes and took an eight-point lead, 42-34, into halftime.
The second half began as a defensive grind, but Baar checked in four minutes into the period and immediately made back-to-back baskets to give the Lakers their largest lead of the game of 13 points. The Lakers then went cold for a three-minute stretch until Baar scored again at the 11-minute mark, but the Tritons had whittled the GVSU lead down to five points.
"We didn't pass the ball very well in the second half," said head coach
Ric Wesley. "We had 13 assists in the first half, but I don't think we were as fluent and unselfish in the second half."
The Tritons took the lead on a three-pointer with 7:25 left in regulation, but after a steal by Hale and a leak pass to Pearl for a two-handed jam, the Lakers went back in front. The lead would change hands five more times before the Lakers eventually ran out of time. UMSL made 11 threes in the game, with the last one proving to be the difference.
The Lakers are now 4-3 lifetime against the Tritons and have lost three of the last four meetings. GVSU has little time to dwell on the tough season-opening loss as they get back to work Saturday (Nov. 11) against the Quincy Hawks in the back-end of the GLIAC/GLVC Crossover in Big Rapids, Michigan. The Lakers take on the Hawks at 7:30 PM in Jim Wink Arena with live stats and audio are available.
