The No. 10 nationally-ranked Grand Valley State women's basketball team defended their home court on Thursday night (Dec. 3) when they defeated conference rival Ferris State 76-61. The victory extends the Lakers winning streak to 10-straight games while they move to 12-1 overall and 5-0 in GLIAC play. Ferris State falls to 6-5 overall and 3-2 in league play.
GVSU will be back in action this Saturday (Dec. 5) when they travel to Sault Ste. Marie to take on the Lake Superior State Lakers at 1:00 PM.
The Lakers were 25-of-54 (46.3%) shooting in the contest while holding the Bulldogs to 24-for-64 (37.5%) from the field. GVSU also won the battle down low as they outrebounded Ferris State 44-29 while outscoring them 34-26 in the paint.
Junior center
Cassidy Boensch led the way with 25 points and 10 rebounds to record her 11th double double of the season. She also picked up two blocks and an assist as well. Junior
Maddie Dailey set a new career high with 19 points after she was 6-for-10 from the field and an impressive 4-for-6 from three. She also added three assists, a block, and a steal. Junior guard
Jenn DeBoer also added 15 points while redshirt junior guard
Victoria Hedemark added a team-high three steals.
The Lakers got off to a quick start after
Cassidy Boensch hit three straight layups before Dailey nailed her first three of the night to give GVSU the 9-2 lead. A steal and layup from Hedemark at the 7:06 gave them the 11-2 lead before eventually going up 15-4 after a DeBoer triple and a Boensch free throw. GVSU kept the pedal down as they broke out to a 21-8 lead before the Bulldogs closed the lead to 13 by the end of the quarter, 26-13.
Ferris State continued to chip at the lead into the second, bringing it down to seven with 8:11 left after an Alexis Bush layup. GVSU managed to maintain control however and kept a comfortable 10-12 point lead throughout the quarter before another three from DeBoer put the Lakers up 14, 41-27, heading into the break.
The third quarter was much of the same as the Lakers and Bulldogs traded shots back and forth but the early lead by GVSU kept them up by double digits throughout the stanza. Back to back layups from Boensch in the seventh minute put the Lakers up 18, 51-33, before they would take a 17-point lead into the final quarter, 56-39.
Ferris State quickly dug into the Lakers lead early in the fourth, cutting it to 13 after back to back buckets to put the pressure on GVSU. The Lakers once again held strong however and never relinquished their double digit lead as the clock slowly wound down. With an 11-point lead with 3:16 to go, the Lakers used a final layup from Boensch and some clutch free throw shooting to finally secure the victory, 76-61.
Again, the Lakers will be back in action this Saturday, Dec. 5 when they play Lake Superior State at 1:00 PM in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
