ALLENDALE, MICH. – Defense travels as the old saying goes, and that rang true for the Grand Valley women's basketball team tonight. On the road in a tough matchup with Northern Michigan, and put together anther dominant defensive effort, holding the Wildcats to just 38 points, picking up a 45-38 victory.
 
Northern Michigan jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead just over two minutes into the game and led 11-6 midway through the first quarter of play. Emily Spitzley would cut into the deficit with a three-pointer, and Paige Vanstee made a layup to tie the game at 11. The Lakers took their first lead of the game off an Abrie Cabana layup. The lead would be short lived, as the Wildcats ended the quarter with four straight points to lead 15-13 after one.
 
Rylie Bisballe tied the game back up to open the second quarter, but a 6-1 run gave the lead right back to NMU at 21-16. The Lakers responded in a big way, ending the half on a 7-0 run, capped off by an Emily Spitzley jumper to give GVSU the lead and then Bisballe hit a free throw to give the Lakers a 23-21 lead at halftime.
 
The scoring run continued for Grand Valley, as they scored the first four points of the second half and went up 27-21. From there the two best defenses in the GLIAC locked up, as only five points were scored the rest of the way, with NMU hitting two free throws to account for their only third quarter points, before Ellie Droste buried a corner three with 34 seconds left in the quarter and put GVSU up 30-23 with 10 minutes remaining.
 
Bisballe pushed the lead up to nine with another bucket in the paint. The Wildcats started to chip away from there, cutting it down to four at 32-28 with seven minutes remaining. The Lakers answered right back with another Bisballe layup and then a huge three from Hannah Kulas to put the lead right back up to nine once again. Northern Michigan would get the lead down to five points multiple times the rest of the way, but couldn't get any closer than that, as GVSU hit six free throws the rest of the way to seal win number 17 for the Lakers.
 
Ellie Droste led the way with 10 points and six rebounds, while Paige Vanstee had eight points and a team-high seven rebounds. Rylie Bisballe and Hannah Kulas each scored seven points and Hadley Miller had five rebounds and three assists. The Lakers held NMU to just 26.9% shooting from the field and 20.0% from three, while forcing 18 Wildcat turnovers.
 
UP NEXT
First place in the GLIAC standings is up for grabs on Saturday, as GVSU heads to Houghton to take on second-place Michigan Tech and their 7-1 conference record. The game is scheduled for 1pm.