Grand Valley State University’s men’s basketball team played two nail-biters over winter break, each ending in a bad case of holiday heartbreak. Both games could not be decided in regulation, and required overtime. Unfortunately for the Lakers, they fell in both of these matchups by a combined deficit of just five points. GVSU lost to the University of Indianapolis, 86-88 in double overtime, and fell to the University of Illinois Springfield, 91-94 in overtime.
The team’s first game was on Dec. 16 in Indiana, where they took on the UIndy Greyhounds. The game started with an eight-to-zero run by the Greyhounds, which left GVSU in an early hole. However, the Lakers fought back with a 10-5 run of their own. Redshirt sophomore Charles Turner drilled a 3-pointer directly after being substituted in and cut the Greyhounds’ lead to three.
Clawing back was a common theme for GVSU in this contest. With roughly eight minutes to go in the half, the team got within two points of the lead. However, they went back down by as much as 10 points. Sophomore Kaden Brown was able to make a layup with four seconds left, but the Lakers still trailed UIndy by eight points after the first half.
GVSU came out of the break with an electric start. Senior William Dunn opened the second half with a 3-pointer just 21 seconds in. Then, junior Jalen Charity made a contested layup for an and-one.
Despite this energetic start, the Greyhounds were always able to keep the Lakers at a comfortable deficit. After a free throw by Dunn with 12:35 on the clock, UIndy had their best stretch. The Greyhounds went on a seven-to-nothing run after already being up by six. This gave them a 13-point lead, their largest of the game thus far.
Throughout this stretch of the game, GVSU had a three-minute scoring drought. The Lakers needed a run of their own to stop the bleeding. Brown would answer this call and nail a 3-pointer to stop the Greyhounds’ run. Despite the 3-pointer, the Lakers were down 12 points with just a little over seven minutes remaining. GVSU then proceeded to outscore the Greyhounds in a 20-8 run. This was, in part, due to Brown making 3-pointers.
With the Lakers back in the game and down by just one point, the team had a chance to win the game with just one bucket. Charity was fouled with eight seconds left and made one of his free throws. With that, the game went into overtime, as the score was 73-73.
In overtime, both teams looked completely out of gas. Only six points were scored by both squads. With a tied score of 79-79, the game went into double overtime.
Double overtime saw more buckets than the prior, but neither team was able to get a comfortable lead. There were several lead changes throughout the extra five minutes of play. However, the leading scorer for the Greyhounds, Deshawn Jackson, scored three determining points in the game’s final 20 seconds. Despite having fought their way back up, the Lakers lost a heartbreaker in double overtime. The final score was 88-86.
“Our continuous fight is a positive I would take from these games,” said Brown. “Our energy and effort is there; we just need to clean up some simple errors.”
The next game, which was at home and against the Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars, was just as close. The teams went back and forth with their scoring. There was always an answer every time a team would get into their rhythm. With around 10 minutes left in the half, GVSU was able to get up by as much as eight points. However, the Prairie Stars marched right back and gained a lead over the Lakers.
Brown once again wasted little time making his impact known and scored a tough bucket in the paint, giving the Lakers a three-point lead at halftime. The score going into break was 45-42.
The start of the second half was much like the first, as neither team could comfortably pull away from the other. Following a basket by Dunn, the game was deadlocked at 56-56 with 11 minutes to play. Over the next three minutes, the Prairie Stars went on a 12-2 run and took a 10-point lead. However, the Lakers were not done fighting.
In the final seven minutes, GVSU battled back, tying the game with just 20 seconds remaining. With a scoreboard that read 81-81, the Lakers headed into overtime yet again. This overtime could not have been closer; there was a point scored every minute of the extra frame. GVSU jumped out to an early four-point lead, but Illinois Springfield took the lead right back. After two clutch free throws by the Prairie Stars, they edged out GVSU, 94-91.
“The biggest thing about close games is your weaknesses get exposed,” said Dunn.
Reflecting on the loss, Brown considered improvements the team can make going into the Winter 2025 semester.
“(If we) clean up some defensive errors and make our free throws down the stretch, we (can) come out of games with wins,” said Brown.
