Trailing by two with just 16 seconds left on the clock, the Grand Valley State University women’s basketball team had an opportunity to steal a victory away from visiting Hillsdale College on Saturday.

Despite having the ball and a chance to take the lead, that opportunity was missed as junior guard Briuana Taylor’s mid-range jumper was off the mark, and Hillsdale (7-8, 4-5 GLIAC) escaped Fieldhouse Arena with a 61-57 victory over the Lakers (8-8, 5-4 GLIAC).

Playing without their second-leading scorer in junior center Alex Stelfox, out of the lineup after tearing her ACL, GVSU struggled to find a flow offensively, scoring only two field goals in the first eight minutes of play.

Despite the slow start, GVSU was able to establish a 3-point half time lead behind a strong effort on the boards, out-rebounding the Chargers 24-11 at the break.

“Our main goal was to get in there and crash the boards cause they were a smaller team,” said Taylor, who led the Lakers with 18 points and eight rebounds. “I wanted to get in there and crash hard, especially on the offensive end, instead of just leaking out.”

The Chargers came out rebounding and scoring in the second half, pulling down 20 in the last 20 minutes of the game to eventually overtake the Lakes.

Despite a three-point deficit, Hillsdale came out of the locker room with all the momentum in the second half. After hitting back-to-back 3-pointers and adding a layup, they built a lead they would not relinquish.

“You can reflect back on the first five minutes of the second half when we did not play good defense,” said GVSU head coach Janel Burgess. “We got down by eight and we were up by three at half, so we let them go on an 11-0 run to start the second half.”

GVSU picked up the intensity on both ends of the floor, sinking a pair of three-pointers by Taylor and sophomore guard Breanna Kellogg, and getting a defensive stop with six and half minutes to play.

“We played extremely hard in the last ten minutes,” Burgess said. “With 6:55 to go we were still down by 10, to be able to knock down some crucial 3’s and be able to create some defensive havoc for Hillsdale to put us in a situation to have the opportunity to win.”

Sophomore guard Dani Crandall kept momentum on GVSU’s side after converting an old-fashion three-point play and tying the game at 57.

“When you’re down even with one person making a really good hustle play, finishing something or knocking down a shot it can really change the momentum of the game,” Crandall said. “I think we had that, and once we saw we were all in it together there was no way we were going to let them take us down easily.”

The Lakers could not finish a shot in the last minute, turning the ball over twice, which ended the comeback bid.

“We had way too many turnovers tonight,” Taylor said. “I think what really hurt us is when came out of half and let them go on an 8-2 or 8-0 run and we couldn’t recover. We need to play with the momentum we had in the five minutes for an entire 40 minutes.”

The Lakers travel to Northern Michigan University on Thursday where they begin a three-game road stint.

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