Following an almost 20-point win against Davenport University, the Grand Valley State University Lakers men’s basketball team headed back on the road to play the Wayne State University Warriors and the Saginaw Valley State University Cardinals.
After two straight wins, things seemed to be looking up for the GVSU team that has had an inconsistent season, but their struggles returned while in the middle of a five-game road trip.
The Lakers took on WSU in Detroit, Michigan on Thursday, Feb. 8 and were led in the first half by the play of redshirt junior guard William Dunn, but ultimately fell short in a 73-66 loss. Against the Cardinals, GVSU played from behind for much of the game and lost 78-62.
Dunn scored 10 first-half points against the Warriors’ defense, as sophomore guard Britain Harris scored 11 points. The duo’s first-half success helped give GVSU a four-point lead heading into halftime, 33-29.
Both Dunn and Harris have been key players for the Lakers’ this season, but their hot start to the game did not carry over to the second half. Instead, GVSU redshirt sophomore forward Ethan Alderink emerged as a big-time scorer.
Early in the second half, Alderink scored seven straight points in under five minutes to give the Lakers a nine-point lead. Following Alderink’s seven-point run, the Warriors answered with eight straight of their own to cut their deficit to one point.
Alderink then hit two free throws and a layup to hold onto a five-point lead, 44-39. With just over four minutes left in the game, the Lakers and the Warriors traded leads and ties before the game reached 64-all with just 1:30 remaining.
WSU had nine of the game’s last 11 points as GVSU crumbled down the stretch.
“At the end of the day we just want to control what we can control, no matter who we play, and that just didn’t happen today,” said GVSU graduate assistant Caileb Brown.
Looking to turn it around against SVSU, a slow start plagued the Lakers. The Cardinals took the first six points of the game before GVSU got on the board three minutes in. Throughout much of the early first half, the Lakers and SVSU traded baskets. That is until Alderink nailed two three-point shots back-to-back, making the score 19-14 nine minutes into the game.
That five-point lead was GVSU’s biggest of the game, as things fell apart from that moment forward. The Cardinals finished the first half leading 31-25 after a 17-to-six-point run propelled them for the remainder of the matchup.
Throughout most of the second half, SVSU maintained a 10-point lead, with just two players reaching double digits for GVSU.
Alderink put up 15 points and went three for three at the 3-point line, while Docks put up 18 and made three baskets of his own from beyond the arc.
“The main thing about the whole game was just trying to get off the offensive glass and just rebounds in general and we lost that battle,” Docks said. “That’s really what hurt us in this game and it made a big difference.”
With the two losses this week, the Lakers stayed at fourth overall in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), just above SVSU. GVSU is now 9-13 overall and 6-6 in conference play.
Next week, the Lakers finish the road trip by playing the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday, Feb. 15 and facing Purdue University-Northwest on Saturday, Feb. 17.
