SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Lake Superior State (LSSU) women's basketball team (1-9, 0-2 GLIAC) closed out a 68-56 victory on the road over the Prairie Stars of Illinois-Springfield (UIS) (5-7) on Sunday.

Both teams started off slow with neither able to score their first points until over three minutes into the game, but a pair of baskets from Grace Bradford (Maple City, Mich.) helped give the Lakers the lead while the defense held the Prairie Stars to only four points in the opening quarter. Both teams would battle throughout the second stanza, but UIS was able to fight back with a 12-0 run to end the half to take a 28-22 lead into the break.

The Lakers came out swinging in the second half with multiple baskets from Gracey Metz (Hartford, Mich.) and CeCe Hacker (Omaha, Neb.) helped their team regain the lead midway through the third quarter with a 10-0 run, but they would still find themselves down by two going into the fourth. Then, after both teams went back and forth to a 50-50 deadlock, Brittany Bowman (Kingsley, Mich.) was able to sink a shot from beyond the arc to open up a 6-0 run to push the Lakers ahead. The Prairie Stars were able to get back within one, but a pair of clutch baskets from Bradford kept her team ahead for good as Metz and Hacker closed out the victory from the charity stripe. 

Four different Lakers were able to reach double-digit scoring, led by Metz with a career-high 16 points followed by Bradford, Hacker, and Jaden Wilder (Manton, Mich.) with 15, 13, and 10 respectively. Bradford also proved to be a force on the glass, grabbing 15 rebounds in the contest to lead all players, helping the Lakers win the rebounding battle by a margin of ten boards.

The Lakers return to action when they travel to take on Roosevelt to open up the new year on Tuesday, Jan. 2 with tipoff scheduled for 5 p.m.