The No. 13 Grand Valley State women's basketball team downed Wisconsin-Parkside, 84-51, on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 9) to move to 21-2 overall and 14-1 in GLIAC action. The Lakers are now a perfect 13-0 at home this season while the Rangers fall to 9-12 overall and 7-8 in the conference.
Despite the impressive win, the best moment of the day came at the 6:45 mark of the first quarter when junior center Cassidy Boesnch hit a jumper in the paint for her 1,001st career point, becoming just the 24th Laker in program history to surpass the milestone. Boensh was then honored with an honorary basketball at halftime of the GVSU men's basketball game to commemorate her accomplishment.
It was another dominant performance in the paint for the Lakers who outscored Parkside 48-24 down low while also winning the rebounding battle, 34-28. Not only were they dominant around the rim, but they were also efficient, shooting 52.5% from the field despite going just 6-of-23 from deep. They were nearly automatic from the free throw line as well, knocking down 14-of-16.
Maybe just as impressive as their shooting performance was the Lakers clean defense, as they sent the Rangers to the free throw line just twice each half where they went 2-of-4 on the afternoon. The Rangers were also forced into 18 turnovers compared to GVSU's new season-low seven.
Individually, the Lakers were led by Boensch on her historic afternoon, as she would go on to score 26 points, pull down 13 rebounds, and reject five shots. She has now recorded 16 double doubles this season, including three in her last four games. Junior guard
Jenn DeBoer had another solid day on the hardwood, going for 18 points and three rebounds while fellow junior forward
Maddie Dailey was just two rebounds shy of a double double herself as she scored 11 and pulled down eight boards to go with a pair of blocks.
Eight other Lakers would score on the day as the entire active roster saw time on the court.
Boensch didn't take any time to get her afternoon started, scoring eight of the Lakers first ten points over just three minutes. It actually wasn't until a
Taya Andrews layup at the 1:47 mark that the Lakers points didn't come from either Boensch or DeBoer, who combined for the first 17 points of the game. Following a 12-4 lead, DeBoer would nail a triple before Boensch followed it up with a pair of free throws before the Andrews' layup. With a 19-7 lead already and time winding down in the quarter, DeBoer drained a deep three from just in front of the half court line to beat the buzzer and put the Lakers up 22-7 after one.
GVSU's lead would quickly jump to 20 points in the second quarter as another DeBoer triple would find the bottom of the net at the 8:22 mark to make it 29-9. That lead would remain steady before the Rangers were able to rattle off a 6-0 run late in the half to cut it down to 15, 36-21. By the time the buzzer sounded at the half however, GVSU's lead was back up to 20, 43-23, after a Boensch jumper with 0:05 seconds to go.
The Laker defense was running on all cylinders in the third quarter. After scoring just three points in the first four and a half minutes of play, the Rangers would be held scoreless over the next five minutes, not scoring again until there was just 0:32 seconds to go. In the meantime, GVSU's offense was churning out the points and they took a 64-31 lead into the final quarter.
A slow start to the fourth quarter would be ended by yet another DeBoer triple to put the Lakers up 36, 67-31, with 8:53 on the clock. GVSU's lead wouldn't slip under the 30-point mark until the 4:53 mark when the Rangers used a quick 7-2 run to cut it to 26, 74-48. The Lakers would be able to coast the rest of the way as they cleared out their bench to spread around the playing time as
Samantha Gehrls would hold the ball in the final seconds to secure the win, 84-51.
The Lakers will head out on their final regular season road trip next weekend as they are set to face Saginaw Valley State on Thursday, Feb. 14 and Northwood Saturday, Feb. 16.
