Nov. 14, 2007

SAULT STE. MARIE - The Lake Superior State men's and women's basketball teams officially open their season against Lewis on Friday at the GLIAC v. GLVC Challenge hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

The Laker women play Lewis at 1 p.m. CT, and the Laker men follow at 3 p.m. CT in Kenosha, Wis. The tournament continues on Saturday with the LSSU women playing host UWP at 5:30 p.m. CT and the men following at 7:30 p.m. CT.

Wisconsin-Parkside will provide free live stats and pay-per-view webcasts on http://www.pennatlantic.com/main.php for all eight games of the tournament. The LSSU-UWP games will be broadcast (audio) on www.gatewaysportsweb.org.

The Laker men's and women's teams were a combined 0-4 during last year's GLIAC v. GLVC Challenge and have hopes for a stronger showing in 2007-08.

On the women's side, Lewis was picked to finish fifth and Wisconsin-Parkside sixth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division Pre-Season Poll. Lewis won the East Division last year, finishing 28-4 overall and 17-3 in league play. UWP was 15-12 overall and 8-11 in the GLVC.

Lewis first-year women's head coach Lisa Carlsen takes over a team that graduated all-Americans Darcee Schmidt and Mary Moskal, who led the Flyers to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. The Rangers' top returnee is senior guard/forward Mackenzie Heise, who averaged 11.4 points per game last season.

LSSU has had two weeks to prepare since playing exhibition games against Big Ten opponents Michigan and Michigan State on Nov. 3 and 4. Freshman Katherine LaPrairie averaged 8.5 points per game to lead the Lakers in those contests, while junior Jackie Armstrong contributed 8.0 points and senior Shalyn Beauchamp chipped in 7.5 points per game. LaPrairie, Beauchamp and freshman Nicole Marshall were a combined 10-for-18 from three-point range. The Lakers trimmed their turnover total down from 30 against U-M to 21 against MSU.

On the men's side, Parkside was picked to finish first and Lewis third in the GLVC East Division. Last year, UWP and Lewis tied for third in the division with 10-9 records. The Rangers were 19-13 overall, while the Flyers finished 15-13.

The Lewis men's team returns 10 players from last season, including a starting five consisting of the conference's top scorer, three-point shooter and rebounder. The UWP men's team opened its season with a three-point loss to Division I Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Nov. 1. The Rangers were out-shot 42-21 at the free-throw line in that contest.

Like Lewis, the LSSU men also return the nucleus of their team, including All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference forward/center Ryan Kuhl, who averaged 16 points and 6.1 rebounds per season. Kuhl scored 23 points in both GLIAC v. GLVC Challenge games last season. Junior guard Mark Morse and sophomore point guard Garrett Konuszewski also started almost every game last season. Morse averaged 13.1 points per game, including 16.8 ppg during his last six games. He was ranked second in the GLIAC in three-point field-goal percentage (.470) and fourth in average three-point field goals per game (2.59).