No. 13 Grand Valley State posted a dominant wire-to-wire victory over Purdue Northwest on Thursday night (Feb. 7), taking down the Pride 84-36 in their first home game in just over a month. The win gives GVSU their 20th victory of the season as they move to 20-2 overall and 13-1 in GLIAC play. The Pride fall to 2-18 overall and 0-14 in league play.
The Laker defense was once again on full display as they forced the Pride into 27 turnovers, the second most by an opponent this season, which they converted into 31 points on the other end of the court. GVSU also held PNW to just 22.2% (13-of-55) from the field and 30.0% (6-of-20) from three.
On the other end of the floor, the Laker offense posted another efficient night, shooting 46.0% (29-of-63) from the field, 36.7% (11-of-30) from deep, and 83.3% (15-of-18) from the free throw line. They also turned the ball over just 10 times all game, surrendering nine points off their own miscues. While both teams pulled down 40 rebounds, GVSU outscored PNW 32-12 in the paint.
Four Lakers found themselves in double digits at the end of the night, led by an 18 point, eight rebound, four block performance from junior center
Cassidy Boensch. Fellow juniors
Maddie Dailey and
Jenn DeBoer weren't far behind with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Dailey also tallied a game-high nine boards while DeBoer picked up a career-high two blocks. Freshman
Brooke McKinley found herself getting minutes early in the game and took advantage, knocking down three-of-four from beyond the arc and going a perfect 2-for-2 from the charity stripe for 11 points in her 11 minutes on the floor.
GVSU wasted no time showing off their offense as
Victoria Hedemark opened up the scoring with an early triple which was followed by back to back buckets from Dailey and Boensch to open up a quick 7-0 lead. The Pride would hit a three of their own at the 7:20 mark but a 7-0 run by the Lakers over the two and a half minutes would push their lead to 11, 14-3. The teams would trade shots back and forth over the next few minutes as the Lakers would maintain the 11-point lead, 22-11, thanks to a buzzer-beating jumper from DeBoer.
The Pride would get their first bucket of the second quarter with 8:10 to go and the Laker defense would step up in a big way, holding PNW scoreless until a pair of free throws with just 0:41 seconds left in the half. In the meantime, the Laker offense would continue to churn out the points, scoring 24 points during the Pride drought to open up the 40-14 lead. A late three by PNW would find the bottom of the net and the Lakers would take the 42-21 lead into the break.
Another three from the Pride would open the scoring and cut the lead to under 20 but just momentarily as
Cassidy Boensch would convert an old-fashioned three-point play to make it 45-24. GVSU's lead would remain stable right around the 20-point mark over the next few minutes until they closed out the quarter with a Dailey three, a pair of free throws from DeBoer, and a final jumper from Boensch to push the lead to 31, 61-30.
GVSU's lead would be shaved down to 29 at the 9:32 mark after a good PNW jumper but that would be the final time it dipped below 30 points the rest of the way. A 13-point run by the Lakers from the 8:26 mark down to the 6:33 mark would put them up 42, 74-32. From there the Lakers were able to coast to their final 48-point victory, 84-36.
The Lakers will be back in action this Saturday, Feb. 9 when they host Wisconsin-Parkside at 1:00 PM inside GVSU Fieldhouse Arena.
