The Lake Superior State University women's basketball team had their first home game of the season today against the Hillsdale Chargers.
The Lake Superior State University women's basketball program has been selected to finish 10th in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Preseason Poll, as voted on by the coaches.
The Lakers will be looking to improve upon last season's overall record of 4-20, including a 3-15 mark in conference play, under sixth-year Head Coach Brandon Lokken.
The game report follows here:
The Lake Superior State women's basketball team (1-4) came away with a hard-fought 85-80 over the visiting Chargers of Hillsdale (3-2) on Tuesday.
Margot Woughter (Traverse City, Mich.) and Grace Bradford (Glen Arbor, Mich.) got the Lakers on the board first with a pair of jumpers to take an early 4-0 lead. After trading a few baskets, Bradford would then go on a 8-0 run by herself to put the Lakers up by ten, and Lake State would take a 24-14 lead into the second quarter.
The Chargers tried to make a push early in the second period of action, but three-pointers from Brittany Bowman (Kingsley, Mich.) and CeCe Hacker (Omaha, Neb.) kept the momentum firmly in the hands of the Lakers. Hillsdale managed to get back to within four points, but a pair of baskets from Mattison Rayman (Otsego, Mich.) and Hacker sent the Lakers into the halftime break with a 39-31 advantage.
The Chargers came out swinging early in the third quarter, going on a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game, but Woughter gathered for a tough layup while being fouled to kickstart a 7-0 run to put the Lakers back in front.
Both teams would then go back and forth with Rayman getting to the free throw line at will and both Bowman and Hacker hitting clutch threes as both teams found themselves knotted up at 58-58 going into the fourth quarter.
Both teams continued where they left off in the third quarter with neither side giving an inch as Bradford and Bowman continued to hit from beyond the arc.
The Chargers were able to go up by six points with four minutes remaining, but after tough work down low to cut within three, Bowman once again hit from distance to tie up the score at 78-78, and she followed it up with a pair of free throws to retake the lead. Hillsdale tied up the score at 80-80 with a crafty layup, but Bradford took a nice feed from Woughter and hit one last three to give the Lakers the lead, and after a pair of defensive stops,
Hacker iced the game away at the line to give the Lakers their first victory of the season by a final score of 85-80.
Bradford led the way offensively with 21 points, and Hacker was not far behind with 19 of her own after shooting 70 percent from the field. Rayman and Bowman each had 16 points on efficient shooting splits with Rayman shooting 75 percent from the field and Bowman hitting 80 percent of her shots from distance. Meanwhile, Rayman once again proved to be a force on the glass with 12 rebounds, and Woughter led all players with eight assists.
The Lakers return to action on Saturday, Nov. 26 when they travel to take on the Tiffin Dragons with tipoff scheduled for 1 p.m.
