After a tough 80-60 exhibition loss against the University of Cincinnati, the Grand Valley State University men’s basketball team is about to begin their 2012-13 campaign, shooting for the GLIAC championship.

The No. 24 Bearcats, a team that lost in the Sweet 16 last season, held off a scrappy GVSU team that wouldn’t go away until the final minutes.

GVSU stayed close in the early minutes of the game but the tourney-tested Bearcats overpowered the Lakers to earn the win.

“We had some really good moments against a very aggressive tough opponent,” said Lakers head coach Ric Wesley.

The Lakers had their chances to make things interesting late, cutting a 21-point lead to 11 with a 21-5 run. But with 3:11 to play, Cincinnati took over and scored the game’s final ten points.
Senior forward Tony Peters said it was a good measure of what the team is capable of.

“I think we showed we can play with tough competition,” said Peters, who scored nine points. ”Winning was always in the back of our head.”

Sophomore transfer Kristers Zeidaks led GVSU with 17 points and five rebounds, while senior center Tyrone Lee added 10 points for the Lakers.

Wesley wants to see more focus from his team as the team progresses through the season. “We need to come out more focused for every minute of the game,” Wesley said. ”We played a good team – our mistakes cost us.”

The Lakers must improve upon their free throw shooting with the regular season approaching. The team struggled, shooting just 7-of-21 from the free throw line, something Wesley said was an area of focus and concern.

GVSU returns three starters from last season and three other members from last year’s team that finished 14-13. Senior Breland Hogan returns at point guard for the Lakers alongside seniors Lee and Peters in the frontcourt.

“There’s still room for improvement with the team even though we are returning some guys — we want the team to be the best it can be,” Wesley said.

The Lakers also have nine new members this year including sophomore guard Ryan Majerle. The transfer from the University of Toledo is the nephew of former NBA All Star, Dan Majerle.

“Ryan is going to be really good for us as a leader,” Wesley said of Majerle, who failed to score, but did grab four rebounds. “He has a good basketball sense on the court.”

GVSU opens regular season play against the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a team the Lakers are 6-0 all-time against, at home Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. The schedule gets tougher in a hurry as the Lakers then travel to ninth-ranked Bellarmine University for the second game of the season.

“If we can go down to Kentucky and play hard and get a win it will be a positive sign for our season,” Peters said.

The Lakers will also play the third-ranked University of Findlay Dec. 17 at Findlay (Ohio).
“We have a lot of tough games to play this year, and we’ve got to get tougher if we’re going to compete,” Wesley said.
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