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vs. Northern Michigan (Wednesday, Feb. 28 – 7:00 PM – GVSU Fieldhouse Arena)
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The Grand Valley State women's basketball team is set to return to action on Wednesday night (Feb. 28), as they host sixth seeded Northern Michigan in the 2017-18 GLIAC Tournament Quarterfinals. This will be the third meeting this season between the Lakers and the Wildcats, with GVSU holding the 2-0 advantage in a couple of defensive battles. Back on Dec. 9, the Lakers snuck out a 66-59 double overtime victory at home before earning a low-scoring 52-38 victory over the Wildcats on the road earlier in February.
 
Tipoff for the tournament matchup is set for 7:00 PM inside GVSU Fieldhouse Arena, where the Lakers are currently 12-1 with their lone loss coming in overtime to #1 nationally ranked Ashland. Use the links at the top of the page to follow along if you can't make it out to the fieldhouse arena tomorrow night.
 
The Lakers are in the midst of a three-game winning streak and are victors in 10 of their last 12 matchups. During that stretch, the Lakers eclipsed the 20-win mark for the fourth straight season, marking the first time in program history a Laker squad has accomplished such a feat. Seniors Korynn Hincka and Taylor Parmley will leave GVSU as the first Lakers ever to win at least 20 games in each of their four years in Allendale. Also, during the same stretch, the two losses came against two nationally ranked teams in #17 Michigan Tech (68-61) and #1 Ashland (96-90 OT).
 
Last weekend, the Lakers (23-5, 16-4 GLIAC) got a couple of big wins over Lake Superior State and Ferris State on the road to secure the #3 seed in this year's conference tournament. The Lakers took the long trip up the U.P. to face the rival Lakers, where they earned an 82-43 victory over a struggling Lake Superior State on Thursday night (Feb. 22) before heading back down to Big Rapids where they took down the Bulldogs, 77-64, to finish out the regular season. With their most recent efforts, the Laker defense now ranks ninth in the entire NCAA DII in defensive scoring, allowing opponents to score just 55.0 points per game, which has led to a 16.7-point difference in scoring margin, which ranks 16th nationally. Much of their defensive success stems from their ability to force their opponents into unfavorable shots. The Lakers are allowing foes to shoot just 37.5% from the field (70th nationally) and a measly 27.3% from three (21st nationally).
 
Despite their defensive prowess, the Laker offense is nothing to scoff at either. Four different Lakers are averaging at least 10+ points while six are scoring at least seven points per game. A pair of sophomores currently leads the GVSU attack, with guard Jenn DeBoer averaging a team-high 12.7 ppg while center Cassidy Boensch is scoring 11.5 ppg. Boensch, who has seen a major increase in minutes due to injuries, is in the midst of the best basketball of her Laker career. She is currently the back-to-back-to-back GLIAC North Division Player of the Week and most recently scored a career-high 32 points to go along with a career-high 12 rebounds against FSU for her third double-double in as many games. Much of Boensch's success stems from the fact that the Lakers have such a great outside presence as well. Along with DeBoer, Natalie Koenig (10.9ppg), Korynn Hincka (9.1ppg), and Maddie Dailey (7.0ppg) all have the ability to hit the three-ball as well as jumpshots from anywhere on the floor. While redshirt sophomore Victoria Hedemark is averaging just below four points per contest, she leads the team with 47 steals and ranks fifth with 36 assists.
 
While Northern Michigan enters the contest with the seventh best offense in the GLIAC, scoring 60.4 points per game, its defense ranks fourth after allowing opponents to score just 61.1 points during the regular season. Despite not having a high-powered offense, the Wildcats still sport some players who know how to score. Lexi Smith currently leads the Wildcat squad with 12.5 points per game while Jessica Schultz and Taylor Hodell aren't far behind at 10.1 and 9.8 points per game, respectively. While Smith is the top scorer, she is also the main facilitator with a team-best 1.9 assists per game and is pulling down a respectable 4.6 rebounds per game. Leading the rebounding category is sophomore forward Erin Honkala who is pulling down 7.4 boards per game, which ranks fifth in the GLIAC.
 
All four quarterfinal games will be played on Wednesday with the winner of each advancing to the semifinals which are hosted by the highest remaining seed. A complete schedule can be found at the top of the page.