Box Score The No. 9 nationally-ranked GVSU women's basketball team dropped a defensive battle at Northern Michigan on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 19), 56-43. The loss drops the Lakers to 16-2 overall and 9-1 in conference play while NMU improves to 14-4 overall and 9-1 in the conference. 
 
In their second defensive battle of the weekend, the Lakers came up short for just the second time all season. The Wildcats held the Lakers to a season-low 43 points on just 17-of-48 (35.4%) from the field and 2-of-13 (15.4%) from beyond the arc. GVSU forced 16 Wildcat turnovers but had 14 themselves and were outrebounded 32-25 on the afternoon. 
 
Junior center Cassidy Boensch led the Lakers with a 25-point, nine-rebound performance to go along with three blocks. Junior forward Maddie Dailey was the lone other Laker in double figures as she was 5-of-12 from the field for 15 points. Lexi Smith of NMU paced the Wildcats with 21 points while Darby Youngstrom added 12. 
 
The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead thanks to two Smith jumpers but a Boensch and-1 with 7:47 left in the first cut the lead to one, 4-3. Another Wildcat jumper with 7:19 on the clock would be the final score before a nearly two minute dry spell for both teams. With 2:20 to go, GVSU tied the game with a Boensch layup at eight-all but a 5-0 run by NMU would close out the first and give them the 13-8 lead. 
 
The Wildcats lead would jump out to seven points in the early goings of the second quarter before back to back three's from them pushed the lead to 13, 27-14. Dailey would nail a three and Boensch would sink a jumper to cut the lead to 10 by the half, 29-19. 
 
GVSU got some offense going in the first few minutes out of the break and quickly knocked the Northern Michigan lead to just five, 31-26 thank to a jumper and three from Dailey. Just when it looked like the Lakers would turn things around, the Wildcats used a quick 6-0 run to go back up by 11, 37-26. By the time the buzzer rang at the end of the third the Wildcat lead was back to 15, 45-30. 
 
A 4-0 run for the Wildcats opened up the final quarter as they went up 19, 49-30. Over the next few minutes, GVSU would slowly chip away the lead and would eventually come within eight, 50-42, with 1:49 to go but couldn't get the stops the needed on defense or their shots to fall on the offensive end as they would eventually fall, 56-43.