Laker Show! Grand Valley State women's hoops wins national championship
Start planning the parade in Allendale.
Behind a balanced scoring attack, the Grand Valley State women's basketball team built a big lead early and held on late to beat Cal State Dominguez Hills, 70-58, and win the Division II national championship Friday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh. As the seconds clicked off the clock, confetti rained down on players and coaches.
It's the second women's basketball national championship for Grand Valley State, the first since 2006. Those two titles are the only two for Michigan teams in Division II women's basketball.
The last college team from Michigan to win a national championship in basketball was Hope, whose women's basketball team won the Division III title in 2022, in the same building that Grand Valley State won Friday.
"They taught me a little bit to have fun," Grand Valley State head coach Mike Williams said after the win, wearing a championship hat as his players danced behind him in front of a big blue and white student section.
"They just like to have fun, but they still compete. They taught me you can do both."
The Lakers (38-2) absolutely dominated during their postseason run, winning five of six games by double digits, and three of six by 28 points or more. Their closest win in the NCAA Tournament was a seven-point win in the semifinal victory over Pittsburg State, but even that game, they controlled almost all of the game.
They finished the season on a 13-game winning streak.
Freshman guard MacKenzie Bisballe led Grand Valley State with 14 points and senior guard Rylie Bisballe, MacKenzie's sister, had 13 points. Redshirt senior guard Ellie Droste had 11 points.
For Cal State Dominguez Hills (36-2), which was making its national-championship game debut and saw its nine-game winning streak snapped, Asia Jordan led the way with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Kya Pearson added 11 points.
Grand Valley State struck early and often Friday night, and led, 38-21, at halftime, thanks to a 22-11 rebounding advantage through the first 20 minutes. GVSU then started the second half on a 9-0 run.
Cal State Dominguez Hills, on back-to-back steals and fastbreak layups, went on a run to cut the deficit to 15 points, 53-38, at the end of the third quarter, and got it to 66-55 with just under a minute remaining, but that proved to be too little, too late.
"They knuckled up in that fourth quarter and kind of hung in there," said Williams, "and eked one out."
they knncuked up in that fourth quarter and kind of hung in there and eked one out.
In his 10th season, Williams brought Grand Valley State to the Final Four for a third time, but the national-championship game for the first time in his tenure. Williams was on staff at Grand Valley State in 2006 for that national-championship run under Dawn Plitzuweit, who now is the head coach at Minnesota. Plitzuweit's daughter Lexi is a redshirt junior guard on this year's team, and had four points in the championship game.
The women's basketball team won the 30th team national championship in Grand Valley State athletics history, and the first since the women's cross-country team won it all in 2023.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Laker Show! Grand Valley State women's hoops wins national championship
