The Grand Valley State women’s basketball team was able to overcome a slow start in its 67-57 win at Lake Superior State on Thursday, but that wasn’t the case two days later.

GVSU’s strong second half wasn’t enough at Fieldhouse Arena on Saturday as the Timberwolves of Northwood outlasted the Lakers in a 63-57 road victory.

The Lakers, who have lost two straight games in Allendale after winning their first 10, started the game shooting 1-of-8 from the field and 0-of-3 from 3-point range. Yet, despite the rough start, they only trailed 30-24 at the break.

“For the seventh game in a row, we got off to a slow start,” said coach Janel Burgess. “We started 1-for-8 from the field to open the game and we didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to get to the free-throw line, which didn’t help.

“We just have to remain confident in our ability to knock down our shots. You can’t fault the effort that we had as a team on the court; we played with good effort. It was our lack of finishing and execution.”

The Lakers adjusted at halftime, however, and the buckets started to fall. The team grabbed its first lead of the game at the 15:40 mark.

It didn’t last.

The Lakers could not seem to find an answer for Northwood’s Jordyn Nurenberg, who finished with a season-high 17 points off the bench. Emily Rivette, the league leader in assists and 3-point shooting percentage, tallied 16 points to go with four assists, while Emily Kutch completed the 1-2-3 punch with 15 points.

GVSU was within striking distance for much of the second half and even cut the Northwood lead to just two with 30 seconds remaining, but the valiant comeback effort fell just short. Northwood hit all six of its free throws in closing time, including four from Rivette, a senior.

“Our effort as a team was there, things just didn’t work out in our favor,” said GVSU junior guard Brionna Barnett, who led the team in scoring for the fifth straight game. “We played really hard and you could tell we wanted it bad.”

Barnett started slow, going 1-of-6 early in the game, but got it going and finished with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting.

“My shots were not falling at the beginning of the game, so I really tried to get to the free-throw line by attacking and drawing contact,” Barnett said. “Once I was able to do that, it helped get everyone on the team going.”

Sophomore forward Kayla Dawson added 12 points and five rebounds on the night, while sophomore forward Piper Tucker chipped in with 10 points and four rebounds. Sophomore guard Taylor Lutz dished out a career-high six assists.

“We made good adjustments at halftime and played with constant energy. We just didn’t get the stops when we needed to,” Dawson said.

With three games left to play, GVSU (16-7, 13-6 GLIAC) falls into a second-place tie with Northern Michigan in the North Division standings. Both teams are guaranteed a trip to the GLIAC Tournament, but only one will have a chance to host a quarterfinal game.

No. 13 Michigan Tech (18-1 GLIAC) is the North Division champion.

The Lakers will be back in action on Thursday night when they travel to take on divisional rival Saginaw Valley State (2-17 GLIAC).