GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Lakeland University women's basketball team endured another frigid shooting game on the road, falling to Calvin (Mich.) College 77-46 Thursday night in a non-conference game.
The Muskies shot a season-low 19.4%, making just 12 of 62 field goals. Calvin took advantage, pulling away in the second and third quarters and sending Lakeland to a loss in the first game of a two-day, two-game trip to Michigan.
The Muskies took a rare trip to lower Michigan to give senior
Jenna Caterino (
Stanton, Mich.) a chance to play in front of friends and family an hour from her hometown. Lakeland went without a field goal for nearly seven minutes at the start of the game, though, falling behind 13-2 before
Alexis Johnson (
Jr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) made the team's first and only three-pointer with 3 minutes, 8 seconds left in the first quarter.
Johnson's triple started a brief 7-0 run to get the Muskies within 13-10 before the Knights received a three-pointer from Katelyn LaRue at the quarter buzzer to take a six-point lead after one period. Calvin would continue on an 11-0 run of its own, going ahead 24-10 less than three minutes into the second quarter, and the lead would never drop below double digits again.
The Knights led 46-25 at halftime, and Lakeland only got as close as 17 on two occasions early in the third quarter. Calvin poured it on in the final minutes, scoring the game's final eight points over the last 2:09 including a pair of three-pointers.
Halle Boldt (
Sr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) led the Muskies with 17 points and nine rebounds and made 9 of 11 from the free throw line. Johnson also scored 14 points and made 7 of 8 foul shots and
Meghan MacPhee (
So.-Marquette, Mich.) scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds off the bench.
Sadie Grabow (
Fr.-Bourbonnais, Ill.) also added five boards off the bench.
Lakeland shot 23.1% (6 of 26) in the first half, and struggled even more in the second half, hitting 6 of 36 (16.7%). The Muskies did can 21 of 29 free throw attempts (72.4%) and held their own on the glass against the taller Calvin team, with the Knights finishing with a slim 48-45 rebounding edge.
LaRue scored 16 points to lead Calvin, which shot 43.3% (29 of 67) including 10 of 23 from three-point range (43.5%).
Lakeland is back on the court Friday, traveling an hour south to face Kalamazoo College at 2 p.m. Central time, 3 p.m. in Michigan.
