The No. 9 Grand Valley State women's basketball team defended their home court for the 11th time this season as they took down the Northwood Timberwolves, 67-51, to improve to 15-1 overall and 8-0 in conference action. GVSU is now 11-0 inside GVSU Fieldhouse Arena this season. The Timberwolves fall to 7-9 overall and 4-4 in GLIAC action.
GVSU will now embark on their longest road trip of the season as they will be the away team in their next five contests. Next weekend (Jan. 17 & 19) they will make the long trip to the upper peninsula where they face Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan before a short jog over to Davenport the following weekend (Jan. 26). The five-game stretch will finish with trips to Wayne State and Ashland (Jan. 31 & Feb. 2) to close out the month.
Five different Lakers scored in the double digits as the Lakers found offense all over the floor, led by junior center
Cassidy Boensch as she tallied her 12th double double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds. She also tallied five blocks as well. Junior forward
Maddie Dailey added 12 points, three rebounds, and two blocks while
Natalie Koenig and
Victoria Hedemark chipped in 11 points apiece. Finally, junior guard
Taya Andrews added 10 points in her 18 minutes on the floor.
Junior guard
Jenn DeBoer picked up a game and season-high eight assists while Hedemark added six as well.
Once again, the Lakers were the more effective team around the rim as they outscored Northwood 32-26 while outrebounding them 33-27. The Lakers also shot an impressive 50.0% (28-56) while holding the Timberwolves to 38.5% (20-52). GVSU was also much more effective from beyond the arc than their last time out, as they went 9-20 (45.0%) from deep.
Dailey got the Laker offense going early, sinking her first triple try of the contest before knocking down a mid-range jumper to give the Lakers the early 5-3 lead. After an 11-7 GVSU lead with 5:29 to go, the Lakers held the Timberwolves scoreless for the final five and a half minutes while they poured in 12 points themselves. When the clock hit zero in the first quarter, the Lakers had a healthy 23-7 lead.
It would be a much more competitive second quarter as both teams would drop 12 points before halftime. The Timberwolves came out with a seven-point run to cut GVSU's lead to just eight points, 23-15, with 6:54 to go. An Andrews three found the bottom of the net for the Lakers first points of the quarter before a Koenig triple would also fall a few minutes later for the 14-point lead, 29-15. After maintaining their 14-point lead over the final few minutes of play, DeBoer once again streaked down the court with the clock closing in on zero before laying in a last second layup to give GVSU a comfortable 16-point lead at the break, 35-19.
A couple of Timberwolf free throws would open the scoring in the third quarter where Northwood would end up outscoring the Lakers, 20-18. The teams would trade three's and layups as the Lakers lead would stay 14 through the first four minutes of play. A quick 7-3 run, capped off by a Grace German layup, by Northwood would cut the lead to single digits, 44-35, for the first time since the first quarter but Dailey answered with another three before a Boensch layup found the bottom of the net to push the margin back to 14 yet again, 49-35, where it would remain by the end of the stanza as the Lakers would take a 53-39 score into the final quarter.
GVSU's lead would push up into the 20's through the middle part of the fourth quarter, allowing them to get some of their reserves some time on the floor. An Anya Smith jumper would round out the scoring for GVSU as they would run away with a 67-51 victory over Northwood.
