SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – No. 3 seed Grand Valley State cruised to a first-round victory over  No. 6 Truman, 89-64, and No. 5 seed Northern Michigan upended No. 4 Ashland, 64-57, Friday at the 2019 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Midwest Regional hosted by Drury.

GVSU (28-3) took early command of its quarterfinal game, leading 24-10 at the end of the first quarter and 49-25 at halftime. The Lakers controlled scoring in the paint, 52-26.

GVSU junior center Cassidy Boensch led the Lakers with 27 points and five rebounds. Victoria Hademark followed with 26 points and Maddie Dailey added 21 points and eight rebounds. The Lakers shot 58.3 percent from the field (35-of-60), including 9-of-18 from three-point range.

Northern Michigan (23-9), which lost to Ashland (28-3) during the regular season by 16 points and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament by seven points, overtook the Eagles with a 13-2 run in the second quarter and held its own the rest of the way. The Wildcats limited the GLIAC's top-scoring team to 36.8 percent (21-of-57) from the field and outscored AU 16-6 in points off turnovers.

NMU's Darby Youngstrom and Lexi Smith scored 14 points each, and Elizabeth Lutz came off the bench to add 10, including two three-pointers. Ashland's Sara Loomis led all scorers with 32 points. She was 5-of-8 from behind the arc and had 13 rebounds.

Today, GVSU takes on No. 2 Lewis at 6 p.m. ET, and NMU plays No. 1 Drury at 8:30 p.m.

In other NCAA quarterfinal games Friday, Drury defeated No. 8 Kentucky Wesleyan, 88-57, and Lewis topped No. 7 Walsh, 86-71.

NCAA DII Regional Tournament Central

Photos courtesy of GVSU and NMU