Sports

UP opponents overpower women's basketball team

By Emanuel Johnson GVL Sports Editor
1/31/2010

There are generally two ways for a team to respond after winding up with a loss in a game it feels it should have won. Said team can either focus on reducing minor miscues and destroy its next opponent or allow the loss to linger and affect its usual style of play.

Unfortunately, it was the latter of the two that transpired as the Grand Valley State University women's basketball team dropped a 66-54 decision to Northern Michigan University on Saturday.

The Lakers (14-5, 11-3 GLIAC) were down by two points with 13:33 left in the game, but the Wildcats made five of their final seven attempts from range to push their lead up to as high as 14 points. The Lakers were powerless to stop them.

"It was a lot of the relief effect today," said GVSU head coach Janel Burgess. "Northern's a good, solid team - they beat Michigan Tech at Tech - but do I think they're better than we are? No. We didn't fight today. We didn't finish offensive or defensive possessions, and you saw a completely different team than what you saw on Thursday, which is very disappointing."

The effort Burgess saw out of her team on Saturday was starkly diminished from the effort the team put up in its 75-71 double-overtime loss to Michigan Tech University on Thursday. It was this loss that lingered in the air during Saturday's game.

"We have the talent and the chemistry to be able to win any game, but we just couldn't come up with this one," said sophomore guard Emma Veach. "(Michigan Tech) has got a lot of game experience, especially with all seniors starting, and are very well disciplined. They were just able to pull it out in the end."

The Lakers went into a 10-point hole early in the contest before taking their first lead of the game to open the second half against the Huskies on Thursday.

Down by two with 3:18 left in regulation, junior forward Kara Crawford hit a layup to tie the game at 52 all, which would be the score heading into overtime.

GVSU went up by as many as five points in the first overtime period, but the Huskies hit a few 3-pointers to go up by one. Veach, who finished with a team-high 19 points, made a backcourt steal and hit a 3-pointer of her own to push the Lakers up by two, but a last-second layup from Husky senior forward Katie Wysocky forced a second overtime.

Wysocky had eight of her team's final 14 points as she helped her team overpower the Lakers for the win. The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak and pushed the team out of first place in the conference standings.

"This hurt's, but it's fine though," said sophomore guard Jasmine Padin. "We get to see Michigan Tech again. We're going to go up to the UP and give them another run for their money. But for this one, we battled and battled hard, and that's all you can do."

The Lakers go back to practice this week in the hope of returning to their blue-collar style of basketball against the University of Findlay on Thursday.

As far as which team will show up to take on the Oilers, Burgess said her team will need to work a lot harder if it wants to win.

"There is no question in my mind about this team," she said. "They can beat Michigan Tech - they can beat any team that's placed in front of them. The ball rolled the other way, but that's OK. We've got them again and we'll probably see them again after that, so we're going right back to practice and we're going to get pretty tough and dirty."

sports@lanthorn.com

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