The No. 11 Grand Valley State Sawyers (25-2, 18-1 GLIAC) took down the Michigan Tech Huskies (19-8, 15-4 GLIAC) on Saturday (Feb. 23) afternoon, 75-46. The win secured the top seed in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) postseason tournament. Their 18-1 conference record is tops in the league and even with a loss in their final regular season game, they would still retain the top seed due to holding the tiebreaker over the Ashland Eagles (25-2, 17-2 GLIAC). A win against Davenport next Thursday (Feb. 28) would make the Sawyers the lone champion of the GLIAC regular season however.
Despite shooting slightly lower than their season average, the Sawyers still knocked down 41.0% (25-61) of their field goals and were 11-of-28 from beyond the arc. Their defense held the Huskies to just 19-of-55 from the field and 6-of-20 from deep as they failed to score more than 50 points in both of their games against the Sawyers.
GVSU's nine turnovers were far less than MTU's 17, as they outscored them 12-4 off of miscues. GVSU also led 41-33 in the rebounding battle.
Senior guard
Natalie Koenig dropped a game-high 20 points to lead the Sawyers as she was 5-of-11 from the field, 3-of-7 from deep, and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Junior guard
Taya Andrews set a new career-high with 16 points as she was lights out all afternoon, going 6-of-7 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep.
Junior center
Cassidy Boensch turned in her 19th double double of the season with a 10-point, 12-rebound performance that included two blocks and two steals. Junior forward
Maddie Dailey added 13 points after knocking down a trio of threes in the first half to put GVSU up big heading into the break.
Despite the Huskies putting points on the board first, the Sawyer offense was churning on all cylinders as they quickly jumped out to a 10-point lead, 12-2, with not even five minutes off of the clock. The 10-0 run included a layup from Boensch, back to back threes from Dailey and Koenig, and finally another Koenig triple following a Boensch free throw. The Huskies would find a little offense in the final few minutes, cutting the lead to nine, 17-8, heading into the second.
GVSU's offense kept hitting as they defense stepped up to start the quarter. A three from freshman
Brooke McKinley found the bottom of the net to spark a 15-2 run by the Sawyers. That was capped off by a
Victoria Hedemark steal and layup from Koenig off the Husky miscue. A 10-5 run would bring the Lakers into the break with a big 27-point lead, 42-15, as an Andrews three would hit with just over a minute to go before a pair of Koenig free throws would close out the scoring with 0:12 seconds left.
Both teams came out slow to start the second half, failing to score for just over four minutes of play before a Boensch layup finally found the bottom of the net. The teams would trade a couple of buckets back and forth throughout the low-scoring quarter and GVSU would take a 31-point lead into the final quarter, 55-24, following a 8-4 run to close it out.
Andrews opened the scoring in the fourth with a jumper before Koenig nailed a pair of free throws to put the Sawyers up 59-24. A steal and fast break layup from Andrews was followed by an old-fashioned three point play from Koenig to put them up 64-31 with just over five minutes to go. Buckets would be traded back and forth as the clock slowly wound down before the final buzzer sounded with the Lakers up 29, 75-46.
GVSU will be back in action next Thursday, Feb. 28 when they host Davenport at 6:00 PM. That game will also serve as the Sawyers Senior Day where Koenig and fellow senior
Tara Lierman will be honored for their time in Allendale.
