KENOSHA, Wis. – The Grand Valley State men's basketball team claimed their fifth straight win after defeating Parkside 77-67 on the road Thursday (Jan. 22) night. The Lakers improve to 14-3 overall on the season and 7-2 in the GLIAC.
 
Ethan Alderink led the Lakers with his first double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds on 6-10 shooting from the field. Jalen Charity scored 16 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and swiped three steals on 7-13 shooting from two three-pointers. Trevor Smith Jr. notched 14 points and four assists on 5-9 shooting from the field with two made triples. David Wilkerson added 11 points, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Mason Docks led the team with five assists, while Shamus Thopmson led the Lakers with 14 rebounds. 
 
GVSU shot 44% from the field, while Parkside shot 42% from the field. Both teams struggled from the free throw line with the Lakers shooting 50% and Parkside shooting 53% from the charity stripe. The Lakers dominated the glass, outrebounding the Rangers 44-34 and 17-9 in offensive rebounds. GVSU dished out 15 assists as a team and forced the Rangers to commit 17 turnovers resulting in 12 points off those turnovers. 
 
It was a first half of runs between the two teams in the opening 20 minutes of play. Parkside started the game on a 14-6 run through the first seven minutes. GVSU answered with a 10-0 run to take a 16-14 lead off a fastbreak layup by Ethan Alderink with 11:36 remaining in the half. Parkside would end the half on a 10-4 run to take a 42-36 lead into halftime.
 
In the second half, GVSU pulled within two points in the first two minutes off buckets by Mason Docks and Jalen Charity. The Lakers would take their first lead of the half at 44-43 on a floater in the middle of the paint by Trevor Smith Jr. After Parkside regained the lead at 45-44, GVSU went on an 8-3 run to take a 53-48 lead with 11:16 remaining. Parkside would cut the Laker lead in half with a three, but Jalen Charity knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their largest lead at 59-50 with 10 minutes to go.
 
Parkside would cut their deficit to six with 6;24 remaining, but Smith Jr. would score five straight points on a jumper in the paint followed by a three to give GVSU their first double digit lead of the game at 67-56 with 5:35 to play. In the final four minutes, Alderink would score six straight points for the Lakers to keep the lead in double digits. Charity would hit the dagger on a layup with 1:53 to play to put GVSU in front 75-62 as the Lakers would close it out and win by 10 points.
 
GVSU will conclude their three-game road trip on Saturday, January 24^th at Roosevelt. Tipoff is set for 4:00 PM ET, 3:00 PM CT in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The game will be streamed live on FloCollege and can be listened live on Thunder Country 107.3.