ALLENDALE – It didn’t take long for the top-seeded Grand Valley State women’s basketball team to show why they are the most dynamic team in the country.
The Lakers scored a stunning 35 points in the first quarter to lead by 21 points after just 10 minutes on their way to a 108-72 win over Quincy in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament on Friday at home.
“We can mix it up. We can shoot the 3. We can go inside. Before the game, I told everyone that we had to be the tougher team and have more grit, and I think we did that,” GVSU center Rylie Bisballe said.
The Lakers will play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Wayne State or Lewis, following a regional semifinal game between Northern Michigan and Ashland.
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“I thought we came out very aggressively on that offensive end and moved the ball well,” GVSU coach Mike Williams said. “We moved well and attacked the basket with our eyes up. We attacked to make the basket not just throwing it up there, and we hunted good 3s.
“Quincy is a really good team. We went down there earlier in the season and it was a war.”
It was a little bit of everything in that first quarter as eight different Lakers scored.
It started with GLIAC MVP Rylie Bisballe inside. She totaled four points and three rebounds in the first minute-and-a-half of the game.
Then it was GLIAC Tournament MVP Nicole Kamin’s turn. She had back-to-back steals, scored on the first, and found Bisballe for a layup on the next possession – and GVSU led 10-0 just 2:15 into the game.
Then the Lakers moved to the outside where Kamin and Molly Anderson hit back-to-back 3s to push the lead to 27-12.
Kamin had nine points in the first quarter and Bisballe had six. Her sister MacKenzie Bisballe had seven points off the bench. Lexi Plitzuweit had four points, Anderson had three, while Kathryn Schmidt, Abrie Cabana and Hadley Miller each had a basket and the team collectively dished out seven assists – all in the first quarter.
GVSU shot 65% from the floor and went 11-for-12 from the free-throw line in the opening quarter.
Nothing slowed down in the second quarter as Ellie Droste hit two consecutive 3s and it was 55-20 as the Lakers started a blistering 20-for-27 from the field (74.1%), going 9-for-10 to start the second quarter and led 63-31 at halftime.
Stunningly GVSU was 19-for-23 inside the 3-point line in the first half.
Three Lakers were in double figures in the half with Rylie Bisballe (13 of her 17), Kamin (11 of her 15) and MacKenzie Bisballe (10 of her 14), while Droste scored eight of her 11. and made her first four shots.
The Lakers led 86-55 after three quarters. Paige VanStee added 11 poitns and Kathryn Schmidt had nine. Avery Zeinstra and Lexi Plitzuweit each had eight.
“We really just reassure each other. We have a tremendous bench and we can pick up right where we leave off,” Droste said. “We all know sometimes shots don’t fall and that is when we have to rely on our defense. The confidence in each other makes it work for us.”
Defense overshadowed by offense
GVSU forced 18 turnovers in the first half, leading to a lot of quick and easy baskets in transition.
“We remember the first round being close last year and we wanted to embrace the moment on our home court and we came out really confident,” Droste said.
Zeinstra sparked some of that off the bench with six steals. The team picked up 17.
“Defensively we were pretty good. We were really active with our hands,” Williams said. “That team was tough to press because they are fast, so we had some good success with that.”
Final Four experience has team on mission
Three years ago, the Lakers made it to the Final Four for the first time since winning the NCAA title in 2006.
Four players remain from that team: Bisballe, Abrie Cabana, Ellie Droste and Hadley Miller.
All four played huge minutes and had huge seasons for the Lakers. That experience showed in the first minutes of the game and will be a factor for GVSU moving deeper into the tournament.
“We talk about playing our best each and every game, and as veterans, that is what they do,” Williams said. “They played aggressively and that was (the key).”
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: GVSU women’s basketball beats Quincy in NCAA tournament first round
