Senior Tyrone Lee entered Saturday’s game against Ferris State University with a chip on his shoulder.

In Lee’s second season as a member of the Grand Valley State University men’s basketball team, he had yet to defeat Ferris State.

Lee knocked that chip off his shoulder after he tallied 20 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, as GVSU (18-8, 15-7 GLIAC) defeated Ferris State 81-73 in the regular season finale.

“I just felt a lot healthier than I did all season, so that played a big part of my athleticism,” Lee said. “I was just determined and focused to box out and get rebounds because they killed us on the glass the last time.”

Besides Lee, GVSU’s other two seniors came up big on Senior Night. Breland Hogan added 12 points, five rebounds, and four assists and Tony Peters added 10 points.

“I thought our three seniors obviously had a little bit extra energy not just tonight, but I thought in their preparation leading up to the game and it carried over,” head coach Ric Wesley said.

GVSU used an 11-0 run in a four-minute span in the first half to give them a 27-13 lead. The Lakers would never relinquish that lead in the game.

Both teams shot 50 percent from the field, with the Lakers converting 23-of-46 attempts and Ferris State (14-12, 13-9 GLIAC) making 24-of-48 field goals. GVSU scored a large part of their points from the free throw line, going 30-of-36 from the charity stripe.

In their last meeting, a 59-58 Ferris State win, Ferris State outrebounded GVSU 27-21. This time, the Lakers dominated the glass from the start of the game, holding a 40-20 rebounding advantage.

“Tyrone’s a big part of that,” Wesley said. “But I thought Ricky (Carbajal) and Darren (Washington) did a good job. We hope that our veteran guys would get in there and do a good job, and it worked out that we did.”

The Lakers were without leading scorer Ryan Sabin, who had an arm injury. He will be monitored day-to-day.

GVSU had other players step up in his place, including freshman Darren Kaputska who tallied nine points in 21 minutes of action.

“All week with being shorthanded, he and Ernijs (Ansons) have gotten additional reps in practice and they really prepared well,” Wesley said. “Darren in particular, you can see he’s been shooting the ball well in practice, so I wasn’t surprised. He’s a hard worker and just trying to find his way and certainly tonight, it was probably his best game of the year.”

With the win, GVSU will host Hillsdale College (17-9, 13-9 GLIAC) on Wednesday in the first round of the GLIAC tournament. In their previous meeting, the Lakers prevailed 67-58.

“It’s great to go into the GLIAC tournament and having home-court advantage is a double plus,” Hogan said. “We must take advantage of it. It’s not gonna be an easy game, but I think we’ll be ready.”

Hogan led GVSU with 14 points in their previous matchup against Hillsdale in December.

The Lakers will look to Lee to have another big game as they get ready to face a strong frontcourt.

“They’re a very big team,” Wesley said. Those guys are big, thick, strong, burly guys. They do a good job of running their motion offense with a lot of ball movement, and it’s tough to guard. It will be a tough task.”

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