ALLENDALE, Mich. — The Grand Valley women's basketball team dominated Saginaw Valley in the GLIAC Semifinals 87-48 to advance to tomorrow's championship game to face Michigan Tech.
The two teams were tied at five early on, but GVSU got hot, ending the quarter on a 25-3 run, getting two three-pointers from Emily Spitzley and buckets from Ellie Droste, Lexi Plitzuweit, Rylie Bisballe, Nicole Kamin, and Paige Vanstee to lead 30-8 after one.
Spitzley continued her hot shooting, drilling another triple to open the scoring for GVSU to push the lead to 23. SVSU started to battle back, but GVSU ended the half on a 12-0 run, getting five points from Spitzley in the middle of it, to lead 49-17 after 20 minutes of play.
The run continued into the second half, as the Lakers began on a 10-2 run, getting threes from Hadley Millerand Paige Vanstee as they pushed the lead up to 40 points. From there the two teams traded baskets the rest of the quarter, as GVSU led 69-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals cut the lead down to 31 points, but Macy Bisballe hit two three-pointers to stop the run. Molly Anderson then went on a personal 6-0 scoring run as the Lakers cruised to the Championship game, completing the three-game season sweep of Saginaw Valley.
Emily Spitzley led all scorers with 19 points, scoring 17 of them in the first half. Rylie Bisballehad her first double-double of the season, scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, while Ellie Droste scored 10. Paige Vanstee and Molly Anderson each scored eight points. The Lakers forced 22 Cardinal turnovers and held GLIAC Player of the Year Kaitlyn Zarycki to 4-14 shooting and five turnovers.
GVSU advances to the GLIAC Championship game to face Michigan Tech tomorrow afternoon at 3:00pm.
