Despite trailing by two points after the first quarter, the No. 11 Grand Valley State women's basketball team earned a 23-point victory over non-conference opponent Central State on Monday afternoon (Dec. 17), 73-50. The victory pushes the Lakers to 9-1 overall and an impressive 6-0 at home this season while their GLIAC record remains 4-0. Central State falls to 4-8 on the season.
 
The Lakers will have one day to rest up and prepare for in-region opponent Bellarmine (5-2, 0-1 GLVC) as they will welcome the Knights to GVSU Fieldhouse Arena on Wednesday afternoon (Dec. 19) for a 1:00 PM tipoff.
 
Junior guard Jenn DeBoer delivered another impressive performance from beyond the arc, nailing 5-of-7 from three en route to a team-high 21 points on 8-of-12 from the field overall. She also pulled down seven rebounds, tallied four assists, and nabbed two steals. Fellow junior in center Cassidy Boensch extended her consecutive double double streak to seven games after scoring 15 points while pulling down 11 boards to go along with two blocks and an assist. 
 
Senior guard Natalie Koenig added nine points of her own to go along with a team-high five assists while redshirt junior Victoria Hedemark tallied three more steals to go along with her team-leading 20 swipes this season. 
 
As a team, the Lakers won the rebounding game as they pulled down 51 boards compared to the Marauders 36, while also outscoring them 32-20 down low. GVSU also held the large margin in fast break points, 12-4. 
 
The Marauders took a 4-0 lead in the first two minutes of play, hitting back to back buckets before two straight jumpers from DeBoer found the bottom of the net to tie things up. After the Lakers went up 8-6 with 3:52 left, Central State would use three's at the 2:46 and 0:39 marks to jump out to a four point lead, 12-8. A couple of Boensch free throws with :15 seconds left brought the deficit to two, 12-10. 
 
The second quarter went in favor of the Lakers, as they would finally get their offense humming at its usual pace. A 7-0 run to open the quarter would give the Lakers the 17-12 lead with just two and a half minutes off the clock. After coming back to tie it at 17-all, the Marauders would not find themselves in the lead again. A huge 15-point run from GVSU over the next four minutes would give them the comfortable 32-17 lead before taking a 34-20 advantage into the break. 
 
A DeBoer three with 7:38 on the clock in the third would push GVSU's lead to 23, 43-20, and cap off another nine-point run. The Lakers would control through the middle of the quarter, never relinquishing anything lower than a 19-ponit lead before DeBoer drained two more three's over a minute span to push the advantage to 25, 55-30. 
 
The wide margin allowed the Lakers to get more players in the game late, as every Laker that dressed managed to get into the game. A pair of Taya Andrews free throws were followed by a Koenig triple before she got a steal on the other end that led to a fast break layup from Boensch to push the lead to 30, 67-37. The Lakers would be able to coast the rest of the way, eventually taking the game 73-50. 
 
Again, GVSU will host the Bellarmine Knights in an important in-region matchup on Wednesday, Dec. 19. Tipoff is set for 1:00 PM.