Laker women host Hillsdale, while Laker men return to Findlay
SAULT STE. MARIE – The Lake Superior State women’s basketball team achieved one of its goals – earning home-court advantage for the first round of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament. The Lakers will be playing for the chance to achieve another goal – qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve never hosted, and that is a really cool opportunity,” senior guard Ronlea Peterson said. “It would be cool to have the community come out. They haven’t been able to watch us play a GLIAC Tournament game. This has been one of our goals since the beginning of the year.”
LSSU (16-9 overall, 13-6 GLIAC), which last hosted a GLIAC Tournament game in 2005, is the No. 2 seed and plays host to No. 7 seed Hillsdale (16-9 overall, 10-9 GLIAC) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2, at Bud Cooper Gymnasium. Tickets are $8 for adults and $3 for students. The game will be broadcast live on Talkradio 1400.
The LSSU men’s team, meanwhile, is the No. 7 seed and travels to No. 2 seed Findlay on Wednesday.
The NCAA Midwest Region poll is announced on Wednesdays, and this week’s poll is likely to show the LSSU women, who are 2-4 during their last six games, dropping out of the top eight. The Lakers most-likely need to reach the GLIAC Tournament finals to regain ground, although previously ranked Grand Valley State, Missouri S&T, Southern Indiana and Kentucky Wesleyan also lost last week.
LSSU beat Hillsdale 78-71 during a regular-season home game in December. The Lakers closed out the regular season with an 88-66 win at Findlay last Saturday. Hillsdale has lost two straight, including a 66-63 decision at Findlay. Both teams recently lost to Wayne State.
In other GLIAC Quarterfinal women’s games, No. 8 Tiffin travels to No. 1 Michigan Tech, No. No. 6 Northwood heads to No. 3 Grand Valley State, and No. 5 Ashland goes to No. 4 Findlay. Winners advance to the site of the highest remaining seed.
The LSSU men (15-11 overall and 9-10 in the GLIAC) make a return trip to 10th-ranked Findlay (23-3 overall, 16-3 GLIAC), which is riding a 104-game home-court win streak.
LSSU trailed 33-29 at halftime and was within four points, 51-47, with eight minutes to go. Lake Superior State coach Steve Hettinga said that two untimely mistakes led to two free throws and a quick three-pointer by Findlay, and the Lakers couldn’t muster a comeback.
“We settled into a nice flow and played solid the whole way,” said Hettinga, whose team has an all-time record of 1-12 against the Oilers. “We fought hard, played well and will hopefully pull a lot of positives out of that game.”
The Lakers held Wayne State to 60 points and a season-low in field-goal percentage last Thursday, and limited Findlay to 70 points.
“We were very pleased with our defense, and the pace of play was where we wanted it,” Hettinga said. “Findlay scoring 70 is right where we wanted them to be. Obviously we need to clean up some other things. They had some key offensive rebounds that led to put-backs, and-ones, and a wide-open three. But our defense was solid and has kept us in some of these games.”
Other GLIAC Tournament men’s quarterfinal pairings include No. 8 Saginaw Valley State at No. 1 Ferris State, No. 5 Hillsdale at No. 4 Wayne State, and No. 6 Michigan Tech at No. 3 GVSU. Winners advance to the site of the highest remaining seed.
