CALEDONIA, Mich. – The Grand Valley State men's basketball team defeated Davenport 59-54 Tuesday (Feb. 24) night in their final road game of the regular season. The Lakers improve to 21-6 on the season and 14-5 in the GLIAC.
 
Antaune Allen and Ethan Alderink led GVSU with 18 points each. Alderink shot 7-15 from the field with three three-pointers and seven rebounds, while Allen knocked down four triples on 6-13 shooting from the field. Jalen Charity scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds. Shamus Thompson came up big defensively for the Lakers grabbing a team high nine rebounds, tying a career high four blocks, while also swiping three steals in 28 minutes played. 
 
GVSU shot 36% from the field and 40% from three, while Davenport shot 46% from the field and 25% from three-point range. The Panthers outrebounded the Lakers 36-35, but GVSU grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and scored 16 second chance points to the Panthers four second chance points. The Lakers forced Davenport to commit 19 turnovers and scored 15 points off those turnovers. 
 
Both teams struggled to find a rhythm offensively in the first 10 minutes of play as the game was tied at 11-11 midway through the first half. The Panthers would score on two straight possessions to take a four-point lead, but Jalen Charity stopped the short run with a step back jumper just inside the top of the key with under nine to go in the opening half. Davenport would take their largest lead of the game at 26-19 with under three minutes in the first, but Antaune Allen would hit a three from the top of the key and a floater in the paint to cut the Laker deficit to two. After a Panther bucket, Allen again would score in the paint for his seventh straight point for GVSU to send the Lakers down just one point at 28-27 after the first 20 minutes. 
 
In the second half, Allen again started the scoring for GVSU by knocking down a three on the second possession of the half to give the Lakers a two-point lead. Ethan Alderink would increase the lead with a dunk on the next possession. After the Panthers cut the Laker lead to two, Alderink would knock down three straight three-pointers to go on a nine-point run by himself to give GVSU their largest lead of the game at 42-31 with 10:30 remaining. Davenport would cut the lead by to single digits with under nine minutes to play but Mason Docks answered with a deep three-pointer to put GVSU up 12 with 8:19 left. After a Panther made dunk, Allen hit his fourth three of the game to put the Lakers up by 13 with just over seven minutes remaining. The Lakers would maintain a double-digit lead until the Panthers were able to cut their deficit to five at 57-52 with just over two minutes to play. The Lakers would get two key stops down the stretch followed by a Charity dunk with 15 seconds left to seal the win. 
 
GVSU will play their final game of the regular season against Ferris State at home on Thursday, February 26^th at 7:30 PM. The Lakers will honor their four seniors before the start of the game. The game will be streamed live on FloCollege and locally on WXSP. The game can also be listened live on Thunder Country 107.3.