BLOG 35: This is a big game coming up for Bulldogs against Lakers

By Sandy Gholston

Ferris State University’s Andrea Clancy tries to score in Thursday's win over SVSU (Photo/Sandy Gholston)

BIG RAPIDS – Ferris State University helped its case for earning a bid to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament with a decisive 81-69 victory over Saginaw Valley State University on Thursday evening in Jim Wink Arena.

Saturday, the Bulldogs play their final home game of the regular season as they host Lake Superior State University at 1 p.m. in Jim Wink Arena. Both Ferris and the Lakers are battling for playoff positioning as the GLIAC Tournament field begins to take shape over the next eight to nine days.

Currently, Coach Tracey Dorow’s Ferris squad is clinging to one of those top eight spots that would earn it a trip to the GLIAC Tournament. The Bulldogs are 8-11 in the league and that has them tied with Lake Superior and Northern Michigan. All three teams would qualify if the tournament started today (Feb. 20). The problem, however, is Findlay is just one game back at 7-12 and Tiffin is two games out at 6-13 with three regular-season games to be played.

So, the standings could conceivably appear quite different at the end of next Saturday than they do today. Ferris, Lake Superior, Northern, Findlay and Tiffin are fighting for their playoff lives. That makes all games big from here on out. Northern dramatically helped its cause with a stunning 69-68 victory, Thursday night, over Hillsdale – one of the top teams in the GLIAC.

NMU’s win makes the game between Ferris and Lake Superior that much more important – as is the Wildcats’ contest against Findlay. It’s strangely ironic four of the five teams battling for three spots are playing against each other this weekend (Feb. 21). Tiffin is playing in a big game against Wayne State.

If you have any questions, ideas or comments feel free to contact Sandy Gholston at sgholston2@netzero.com