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Grand Valley St. Ladies Win National Championship
 This story and photo are courtesy of Grand Valley State University Athletics PITTSBURGH, PENN. – For the second time in program history, the GVSU women's basketball team are National Champions. The Lakers took down California State-Dominguez Hills 70-58 in the championship game to win the title for the first time since the 2005-06 season. The win puts a bow on top of a fantastic season for the Lakers, in which they went 38-2, the most wins in a single season in program history. They won the GLIAC regular season and tournament titles, then the Midwest Regional title. 37 of the wins were by double-digits, and they led the country in scoring margin at 30.3. Escanaba High School graduate Nicole Kamin had three points, six reboumds, three assists and two steals in the win. Gladstone High School graduate Megan Crow is also on the team, but did not play due to injury. The CSUDH press gave the Lakers trouble to begin the game, giving them a 7-2 lead after four minutes of action. GVSU settled in and made a 7-0 run, with Ellie Droste scoring the first five, to put them up 9-7. It remained tight over the next few minutes, but with the game tied at 11, GVSU end the quarter on a 6-1 run to lead 17-12 after 10 minutes. That momentum carried over into the second period, as the Lakers started on a 9-1 run to pushed their lead up to 26-13. The advantage would never dip into single-digits the rest of the way. It grew to as much as 19 points at 38-19, but a late Toro bucket made it 38-21 heading to halftime. A 9-0 Laker run started off the second half, pushing the Laker lead up to 47-21. The Toros started to chip into the Laker lead, ending the quarter on a 17-6 run to only trail 53-38 with one quarter to play. After CSUDH got their deficit down to 12 two minutes into the fourth quarter, GVSU got two free thrwos from Paige Vanstee and a triple from Rylie Bisballe to push the lead back to 17 points. The Toros would not go away, going on a 13-6 run to get within 10 points with 35 seconds remaining. The Lakers would not let them get any closer, with both Ellie Droste and Abrie Cabana knocking down two free throws to ice the game away. Tournament MVP Rylie Bisballe scored 13 points, adding six boards, three assists, and three steals. MacKenzie Bisballe earned All-Tournament Team honors, dropping a team-high 14 points, recording four rebounds, two blocks, and two steals. Ellie Droste scored 11 points and Paige Vanstee had eight points. Nicole Kamin was also named to the All-Tournament team, tallying six boards, three assists, three points, and two steals. With the victory, the graduating senior class of Rylie Bisballe, Hadley Miller, Ellie Droste, Abrie Cabana, and Kathryn Schmidt end their careers with 145 wins, the most of any graduating class. They were a part of four regular season GLIAC titles, three GLIAC tournament titles, two Midwest Regional Championships, and now one National Championship. |
