HAMMOND, Ind. - The No. 7 seeded Lake Superior State men's basketball team was eliminated from the 2021 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Basketball Tournament with a 72-57 loss to the No. 2 seeded Grand Valley State University Lakers in Hammond, Ind. on Thursday, March 4 in the quarterfinal round of the tournament. With the loss, the 2021 season comes to a close for the Laker men's basketball team.
Lake Superior State had a strong first half and would lead, 33-28, after the first twenty minutes of play.
GVSU opened the game's scoring with a three pointer and LSSU's Malek Adams evened the score at three when he made a three point jump shot after Justin Fischer registered a steal. Fischer would give the Lakers their first lead of the game at 16:46 of the first half when he made a jump shot to go up 5-3 in the game.
At the 14:57 mark of the half, Fischer would hit a shot from behind the three point line and Adams would follow with three straight free throws to give the Lakers an 11-5 lead.
Brandon Allen extended the lead to seven points for LSSU when he scored his first three pointer of the half at 13:14 of the first half (14-7).
Grand Valley State would tighten the Lakers lead to four points with just under 12 minutes left in the game before LSSU would score 14 of the game's next 18 points. Fischer sparked the stretch as he scored a pair of field goals and Allen would build the lead to nine (21-12) with his second three pointer of the night.
The LSSU Lakers strong shooting would continue as freshman Blake Cassidy and Fischer added two more three pointers for the Lakers. With 8:01 left on the clock, the Lakers held a 13 point lead (27-14) over the higher-seeded Lakers.
In the final four minutes of the first half, Grand Valley outscored Lake Superior by a 9-2 margin. The first half of the quarterfinal contest ended with LSSU holding a five point lead (33-28).
Grand Valley got off to a strong start in the second half with an early eight point run and was able to tie the score at 35 within the first three minutes of play.
David Wren stopped the GVSU Lakers run at 14:33 of the second half when he made a jump shot to bring LSSU back within a point (38-37). But Grand Valley would respond with nine straight points to take a double digit lead with 12 minutes remaining on the clock (47-37).
With just under five minutes remaining in the postseason game, Cassidy added another three pointer for Lake State and Adams would make a layup seconds later to bring the team back within single digits (61-52).
Fischer added another five points in a solid effort but Lake State would still trail by nine (66-57) with three minutes left. However, when Christian Negron made a dunk with 1:51 left on the clock the game became out of reach for Lake Superior State.
The Lake Superior State Lakers season would end by a final score of 72-52.
Breaking Down the Game:
Fischer had a career game for the Lakers as he set a new personal-best with 19 points in the game. The junior guard finished the night going 8-for-10 including 3-for-4 from behind the arc.
Adams joined Fischer as the other Laker to record double-figures in points in the game as the redshirt-senior scored 10 points. Adams led LSSU in three pointers in the game with three.
Kemon Bassett led the Lakers in rebounds with eight in the contest.
The LSSU Lakers finished the game with a 36.1 shooting percentage, going 22-for-61 in the game. On the other end of the floor, the GVSU Lakers went 26-for-61 in the game to total a 42.6 shooting percentage. Grand Valley outrebounded Lake Superior State, 47-30, in the game.
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