vs. Davenport (Saturday, Feb. 10th – 6:00 PM – GVSU Fieldhouse Arena)
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The Grand Valley State women's basketball team is all set to host the Davenport Panthers tomorrow night (Saturday, Feb. 10) at 6:00 PM in what will be the second matchup amid the Lakers four game home stand. This will be the second meeting of the season between the two squads, with the Lakers earning a 75-41 victory over the Panthers back on Dec. 2nd in Grand Rapids, Mich. GVSU will enter the contest with a 19-4 overall record and a 12-3 mark in the GLIAC while the Panthers come into the matchup with a 7-15 record and 5-10 mark in conference play.
Most recently, the Lakers took down the Warriors of Wayne State in an impressive 71-41 victory at the DeltaPlex Arena on Thursday night (Feb. 8). After their first matchup was decided in overtime in Detroit – with the Lakers coming out with a 73-67 victory – GVSU stepped up with their all too familiar lockdown defense and held the Warriors to nearly 30 points below their season average. The Lakers forced 21 turnovers, including 10 steals, which they converted to 27 points, while also holding the Warriors to 34.7% shooting, including just 18.2% from three. Offensively, four different players scored in double digits for GVSU, led by sophomore guard
Jenn DeBoer, who poured in a game high 16 points. DeBoer was followed by junior
Natalie Koenig (12 points) and sophomores
Cassidy Boensch (11 points) and
Maddie Dailey (10 points). Koenig hit an impressive milestone for her career after scoring her 1,000th collegiate point on an and-1 layup late in the game Thursday.
The Laker defense will be going up against a Panther offense that is scoring 59.3 points per game and is led by senior forward Emily Severn. The 5'11" Severn is scoring 12.5 points per game while also pulling down 5.6 rebounds per contest. Severn is also the Panthers biggest threat from deep, as just over half of her total field goals have been 3-pointers, of which she is 54-161 (33.5%). Davenport also has a trio of players all averaging around seven to eight points. Jenna Falkenberg is second on her squad in scoring at 7.9 ppg and leads the way with 8.1 rebounds, which is third in the GLIAC, and she is followed closely by Amanda Merz (7.7 ppg) and Martyna Pioro (7.0 ppg).
The Panther defense will have to deal with a Laker offense that is averaging 70.9 points per game and is outscoring their opponents by an average of 16 points per game. GVSU has the ability to score a large amount of points in a short amount of time thanks to their proficiency from three. They currently rank second in the league in made 3-pointers and are hitting them at a respectable 34.7% clip. Even when the Lakers are off from deep, they maintain the ability to score down low with players like Boensch,
Taylor Parmley, and
Korynn Hincka. Parmley is averaging 12.0 ppg this season, nearly all of which come down low, while Hincka is putting in 9.6 points a night and Boensch is scoring 9.2 ppg in just 16.9 minutes per game.
Following the matchup tomorrow, the Lakers will stay in Allendale through next weekend as they are slated to host #1 ranked Ashland next Thursday (Feb. 15) and Tiffin on Saturday (Feb. 17). Thursday's game is set to start at 8:00 PM while Saturday's game will tipoff at 3:00 PM.
