Taylor leads Lakers to first road win

After four lost opportunities, the Grand Valley State University women’s basketball team earned its first road victory of the season Saturday in a 69-63 victory over Tiffin University.

“We’ve been through some adversity, there’s no doubt about it,” said GVSU head coach Janel Burgess. “To get a road win in the fashion that we did was very important. The kids were tough, they fought through the entire 40 minutes of the game, played great defense and were really relentless down the stretch even when Tiffin continued to make a push at us.”

The victory comes just two days after GVSU (3-3, 1-1 GLIAC) let a 22-point first-half lead slip away in a 79-56 loss at Ohio Dominican University (5-1, 1-1 GLIAC).

GVL Archive Photo

“On Thursday, what it came down to was we weren’t getting defensive stops,” said junior guard Lauren Stadola. “On Friday in practice and in our shoot-around we really worked on defense.”

In the loss against the Panthers, Stodola led the Lakers with 18 points and three rebounds while junior forward Brittany Taylor chipped in with 12 points and six rebounds.

Saturday proved to be a new day for the Lakers, who defeated Tiffin University 69-63, en route to GVSU’s first road and first conference victory of the season.

“Our focus was really on getting defensive stops because we know that’s how we have to win on the road in the GLIAC,” Stodola said. “It feels good that everyone did their part and we were successful together. We bounced back after hitting some adversity so hopefully we can keep it going now.”

Despite trailing the Dragons (4-1, 1-1 GLIAC) by three points at the half, GVSU found a way to pull off a victory behind the play of junior forward Briauna Taylor.

“I wasn’t really happy with how I have played,” she said. “So (Saturday) I wanted to go out and just play and have fun with it.”

Taylor, who has struggled on the offensive end as of late, only scoring six points in GVSU’s previous two contests, exploded with a game-high 25 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

Although Taylor’s 25 points led a Laker offense, which shot 60 percent from the floor in the second half, junior center Alex Stelfox also contributed with 15 points and eight rebounds.

“We moved the ball really well offensively,” Burgess said. “We were selfless. We had 17 assists and were willing to make the extra pass to get somebody an open shot.”

The Lakers took control of the game at the 17:26 mark and never looked back when Briauna Taylor and Stodola came up with back-to-back steals that were converted into baskets.

“We didn’t want to drop two games in Ohio to start the GLIAC, so we just worked from the Ohio Dominican game to come back and get a win,” Taylor said. “This was probably our best offensive game of the year.”

The Lakers will return to action at 6 p.m. on Wednesday when they travel to Northwood University.