ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Grand Valley State Lakers punched their ticket to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament with an 84-62 win over the Tiffin Dragons Saturday afternoon in the final game at the GVSU Fieldhouse of the season. Hunter Hale scored a career-high 28 points, the most scored by a Laker this season, to lead GVSU to their third straight win. Drake Baar celebrated his senior day with 12 points and five rebounds to help the cause. The Lakers improve to 14-12 on the year and 9-9 in the GLIAC while the Dragons drop to 7-19 on the year and 3-15 in conference.
 
The Lakers shot .456 (31-68) for the game, including 12-33 from three and 10-12 from the free throw line. Tiffin went .345 (20-58) from the floor, 8-28 from downtown and 14-21 from the stripe. The Lakers pulled in 44 rebounds compared to 32 by the Dragons and GVSU forced 12 turnovers while committing 11 themselves.
 
Hale connected on five threes in the game to set a new single-game high by a Laker this season. He also pulled down four rebounds and dished out four assists. Chris Pearl pulled down 11 rebounds and added six points for the Lakers in the contest. Shane Waldon and Justin Miller each scored 13 points to pace the Dragons.
 
Three-point shooting carried the Lakers early. Hale, Lubitz and West all hit early threes to help the Lakers to a 9-6 lead four minutes in. Hale drilled four of his first five attempts from downtown and the Lakers started 6-for-9 from beyond the arc to open a 24-17 lead midway through the first half. The Lakers then went on a 13-2 run from the six-minute mark down to 2:30 left in the half to jump out to a 14-point lead. The Lakers hit a pair of threes down the stretch, giving them ten for the first half, and the Lakers carried a 48-30 lead into the locker room.
 
The teams turned defensive in the second half, with buckets hard to come by for both sides, but the Lakers still edged their lead to 20 points as the clock dipped under eight minutes left in the game. Baar had six of the Lakers first 18 points of the second period to jump into double figures in scoring. Tiffin responded to cut the deficit to 15 with under five minutes to go, but the Lakers kept the Dragons at arm's length the rest of the way.
 
With 90 seconds left in the game, head coach Ric Wesley subbed out Baar, Chris Dorsey and Myles Miller to give the seniors a standing ovation and Gentry Hunt made his second appearance of the season to celebrate his final home game as a Laker. Hunt laid in the final basket of the game for his first points as a Laker to give the GVSU bench one more reason to smile on Saturday.
 
The Lakers look to improve their tournament seeding as they hit the road for the final two games of the regular season. GVSU heads to Lake Superior State for a battle of the Lakers Thursday (Feb. 22) at 7:30 PM. You can follow along with stats on GVSULakers.com and hear the action live on ESPN radio 96.1 FM in Grand Rapids and everywhere on the iHeart app.