Laker men beat Wayne State to advance to semifinals
SAULT STE. MARIE - Playing a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament game in front of a home crowd for the first time, the Lake Superior State men's basketball team took care of business and beat Wayne State 72-56 on Tuesday.
LSSU (21-7) advanced to the semifinal round for the second straight year. Last year, the Lakers went to the semifinals as the No. 4 seed and lost to top-seeded Grand Valley State. The two Laker squads will again meet in the semifinals, but this year LSSU is the No. 2 seed while GVSU is No. 3. Grand Valley State started the 2009 tournament as the fourth seed, but bumped up a spot due to No. 6 seed Michigan Tech's upset victory over No. 3 seed Hillsdale.
The GLIAC semifinals begin at 6 p.m. Friday at Findlay. UF is the No. 1 seed and will play host to MTU. The finals are at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Ryan Kuhl scored 22 points and Tim VanOudheusden added 15 to lead Lake Superior State, which improved to 5-3 overall in GLIAC Tournament competition. The Lakers led from start to finish and had the game in hand, 58-39, with 12:29 to go.
Garrett Konuszewski, Mark Morse and Kyle Hunt scored seven points each for the Lakers. VanOudheusden led the Lakers in rebounds with five. He also had six assists and three blocked shots. Kuhl led LSSU in steals with three and was one of three players with three assists.
LSSU shot 53.1 percent from the field, including 6-of-15 from three-point range. The Lakers made 14-of-16 free throws. They out-rebounded WSU, 33-31.
Jerry Oden and Bryan Wright scored 14 points each to lead Wayne State (12-15), which shot 37.3 percent from the field. The Warriors were 5-of-19 from behind the arc and 7-of-13 at the free-throw line.
