vs. Tiffin (Saturday, Feb. 17th - 3:00 PM - GVSU Fieldhouse Arena)
Radio: WTKG 1230 AM |
Listen
Watch:
Video (ESPN3) |
Live Stats
Tickets
The Grand Valley State women's basketball team is set to host the Tiffin Dragons in the final regular season home game of the season this Saturday, Feb. 17th at 3:00 PM. As per tradition, the game will act as Senior Day where the team will honor their two seniors,
Korynn Hincka and
Taylor Parmley, for all that they have done in a Laker uniform. Both seniors will be honored after the men's game (1:00 PM start) and before tipoff of their own game.
GVSU will enter the contest with a 20-5 overall record and a 13-4 record against GLIAC competition while the Dragons will come in at 9-16 overall and 5-12 in conference play. The Lakers have already clinched at least a berth in the GLIAC Tournament (Feb. 28, Mar. 3-4) and are fighting for a top-four seed for the right to host a quarterfinal matchup on the 28th. In the first NCAA Regional Rankings, the Lakers fell into the #5 seed in the Midwest, with the top-8 seeds heading into the NCAA Midwest Region Tournament. Tiffin is currently fighting for a spot in the GLIAC Tournament as they are tied for fourth in the GLIAC South Division Standings.
This past Thursday (Feb. 15) the Lakers fell to #1 Ashland in overtime inside of an electric GVSU Fieldhouse Arena. The game pitted the top-ranked defense in the GLIAC in the Lakers against the GLIAC's (and NCAA's) top-ranked offense and 40 minutes turned out to not be enough time to decide the winner. Unfortunately, the Eagles stopped the upset bid in overtime and won, 96-90. Junior Natalie Keonig and sophomore
Cassidy Boensch led the Lakers in scoring after they both posted career-highs of 26 and 23 points, respectively. Three different Lakers tied for the game-high in rebounds with eight apiece (
Korynn Hincka,
Maddie Dailey, and
Megan Belke) en route to outrebounding the Eagles 50-28. Hincka tallied 14 points to go along with her eight rebounds while
Victoria Hedemark went a perfect 3-for-3 from deep and 2-for-2 from the free throw line to tally 11 points.
As a team, the Lakers shot 46.2% (30-65) from the field and a blistering 48.0% (12-25) from three to record their season high 90 points scored. Even though the game went into overtime, the Laker defense still held the Eagles to six points below their season average and had the game not gone to extra time, the Eagles would have been nearly 20 points below their average. GVSU also held Ashland below their season average in field goal percentage (45.6%) but the Eagles were nearly just as effective from three as the Lakers after hitting 13-of-30 three's (43.3%).
The Dragons will enter the contest having just beat Purdue Northwest by ten points on the road, 66-56, to tally back to back wins for the third time this season. Ali Shirmer paces the Tiffin offense with 11.9 points per game to go along with her team-best 2.1 assists per game and 3.0 rebounds. As a team, Tiffin ranks seventh in the GLIAC in offensive scoring with 60.6 ppg and ninth in defensive scoring after giving up 71.5 points per game. After their 90-point performance, the Lakers are now averaging 71.1 ppg – which is fourth in the GLIAC – while their defense is still tops in the GLIAC, allowing opponents to score just 56.2 points against them.
Following the season's final regular season home game and senior day, the Lakers will hit the road as they are schedule to play Lake Superior State on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 5:30 PM in Sault Ste. Marie before coming back south for a matchup with GLIAC rival Ferris State on Saturday in Big Rapids at 3:00 PM.
