Grand Valley State University men’s basketball team went on a two-game road trip on Thursday, Jan. 30, and Saturday, Feb. 1. The team made stops at Northern Michigan University, where they fell 79-52, and Michigan Tech, where they lost 81-66.
In their Thursday game against NMU, the Lakers trailed early. The Wildcats hit four of their first six shots and were able to secure an early eight-point lead. GVSU rallied back behind efficient play from redshirt sophomore Charles Turner. At one point, Turner scored seven straight points for the Lakers. After senior William Dunn got a layup to fall in the paint, GVSU tied the game at 20 points.
NMU played a strong last five minutes of the first half. The Wildcats outscored the Lakers 14-7 to close out the half, as GVSU trailed seven at the break.
The second half did not see a bucket from either side in the first two minutes of play. Then, NMU drilled a 3-pointer to extend their lead to 10. The hot start for NMU certainly seemed to carry over into the second half. On the other hand, this was a disastrous half for the Lakers. The Wildcats were able to abruptly get their lead to 20 points not even midway through the second half. This proved to be too large of a lead for the Lakers to come back from. After getting outscored by 20 points in the second half, GVSU lost by 27 to NMU, ending the Lakers’ winning streak.
Just a couple of days later, the Lakers found themselves at Michigan Tech for a matchup against the 14-5 Huskies. The last time these teams matched up, Dunn was very impressed by their program.
“Michigan Tech is a great team,” said Dunn. “They have some real players who can score, and have been playing together for a while now.”
GVSU was able to keep the deficit within single digits for the majority of the first half. However, MTU was able to manage a lead for 15 of the 20 minutes in the first half. After a small five-to-zero run before halftime, the Lakers were down by 11 points. This was the largest lead of the game thus far for the Huskies, with a score of 44-33.
The Huskies did a phenomenal job of nursing this lead in the second half. There wasn’t a lot that separated the two teams in the box score, but MTU kept GVSU at a comfortable distance for the majority of the second half. There were small droughts where both teams did not score, but it seemed like any time the Lakers scored, it was matched by Michigan Tech. The Lakers committed a solid amount of fouls and the Huskies were excellent from the line. In their 15 chances at the strike, MTU missed only once.
After battling all half, GVSU simply ran out of gas with around five minutes left in the game. Here, the Huskies were able to capitalize on their opponents’ seemingly-tired legs, and put away the Lakers, 81-66.
Although they lost, the Lakers saw solid efforts from junior Jalen Charity, who led the team in scoring, and sophomore Kaden Brown. Charity scored 13 points on an efficient 50% shooting from the field. Brown’s shot fell from beyond the arc, shooting 50% from the 3-point line.
Despite these performances, the Lakers dropped the back-to-back games. After their loss to the Huskies, GVSU is now .500 on the year at 10-10.
Brown emphasized the importance of remaining together as a team, especially through rough patches.
“We will go back to the drawing board,” said Brown. “(We’ll) bring energy and focus into practice next week.”