Feb. 8, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – After season-best performances in their last game, the Grand Rapids Community College men's and women's basketball teams struggled against Mid Michigan College, both falling by 18 or more points on Wednesday.
In the women’s game, Mid Michigan led wire-to-wire, and stayed unbeaten in the conference with a 97-65 victory. Eight visitors connected on at least one three-point shot, totaling 12 in all.
GRCC’s Grace Lodes earned her 10th double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds while Marlene Bussler finished with her second career double-double, with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Sally Merrill led all scorers with 20 points while grabbing eight rebounds. It was her 15th career game with 20 or more points and third in her last four games.
The men's team shot a season-low 31 percent from the field and was just one rebound shy of its season low of 36 in an 83-65 to the Lakers.
GRCC trailed 33-10 nearly 12 minutes in the ballgame, but cut the deficit to 44-34 at the half.
In the second half, the Raiders got to within eight points on three occasions, but Grand Rapids native, Delon McCloud and the rest of the Lakers took over and led their team to victory.
The GRCC men’s team dropped to 15-6 overall and 4-4 in the MCCAA Northern Conference.
On a bright spot, GRCC totaled a season-low seven turnovers, making it now four of its past five games with 10 or fewer turnovers.
Brockton Kohler led GRCC with 13 points and nine rebounds. Danyel Bibbs and Bashir Neely both scored 12 points and Jordan Houser had a game-high four steals.
On Feb. 11, both teams will look to get back on the winning track as they travel to Escanaba as they battle Bay College for the second time this season. The women will tip-off first at 1 p.m.
This story was reported by Ben Brown. Photo by Andrew Schmidt.