SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Lake Superior State University (LSSU) men’s basketball team (12-13, 11-6 GLIAC) earned a 65-57 victory over the Grand Valley State Lakers (16-11, 10-7 GLIAC) to secure home court advantage in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament.
Caden Ebeling opened up the scoring for Lake State as both teams battled early to a 9-9 stalemate. Tyson Edmondson would then hit a three to propel his team to a 9-2 lead, and Xander Okerlund would hit a three of his own as Lake State quickly tacked on another run of 10-2, extending their lead to 30-17. Grand Valley was able to score a pair of baskets to try and crawl their way back, but Lake Superior State would pour it on to end the opening half with a 14-0 run to double up the score at 44-22 going into the locker room.
Lake State would come out strong as Okerlund found Ebeling for an alley-oop layup to cap off an 8-2 run to extend the lead to a 25-point margin, the largest of the game. However, Grand Valley would not go down quietly with runs of 11-2 and 19-5, coming all the way back to within five points, but it would not be enough as Kemon Bassett iced the game away at the free throw line to secure LSSU’s first victory in Allendale, Mich. since 2015 and lock up the No. 4 seed in the GLIAC Tournament.
Ebeling led the way offensively with 18 points while also grabbing six rebounds, and Bassett finished with a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double while also snagging three steals on the defensive end of the floor. Meanwhile, David Wren joined his teammates in double-digit scoring with 13 points of his own.
The Lakers will wrap up the regular season on Saturday, Jan. 25 when they take on the Davenport Panthers with tipoff scheduled for 3 p.m.
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