HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest men's basketball team suffered an 81-76 defeat in a close battle with 24th-ranked Grand Valley State Thursday night at John Friend Court.

PNW dropped to 3-7 (0-3 GLIAC) overall while GVSU moved to 7-1 (2-1 GLIAC) on the season.

HEAD COACH BOOMER ROBERTS:
"We played with much more love, joy, and toughness tonight. Nobody in our locker room wants moral victories, and we came up short. But we need that type of effort moving forward. AB and Kell were great, and Joan gave us a huge spark in his first college start."
 
STAT LEADERS

• Mikell Cooper (Milwaukee, Wis./Bradley Tech) and Anthony Barnard (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo) filled the bucket with 23 and 22 points, respectively
• Cooper also had a team-high seven free throws made
• Barnard barely missed a double-double with nine rebounds
• Kai Steinman (Champaign, Ill./Ben Davis) dished out a team-high four assists
• Anthony Irvin (Chandler, Ariz./Corona Del Sol) filled the stat sheet with 10 points, seven rebounds, and two steals
• Caleb Zurliene (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) and Jonte Coleman (Champaign, Ill./Champaign Central) each knocked down two 3-pointers apiece

 
How It Happened:
The Pride battled with GVSU all game long, shown by the five ties and 11 lead changes. The largest lead of the night was nine points which came near the end of the contest. for GVSU. The two sides stayed within one or two possessions of one another the majority of the way.
 
PNW led 31-29 with 5:05 left in the first half after a Jonte Coleman (Champaign, Ill./Champaign Central) three. GVSU answered by going blow-to-blow with the Pride leading to a 42-38 Laker advantage at the break.
 
PNW responded in the second half with a mixture of scores from Anthony Barnard (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo) and Mikell Cooper (Milwaukee, Wis./Bradley Tech) to take a one-point lead, 54-53, with 12:29 remaining. The duo kept it going throughout the second period, but despite the dynamic offensive attack, the Lakers were able to narrowly pull away to top the Pride, 81-76.
 
GVSU scored most of their points from the paint (44) and at the free-throw line. The Lakers hit 16 of 22 from the charity of stripe. PNW outshot the visitors from beyond the arc, allowing only three GVSU 3-pointers. The Pride drained 10 of 33 three-point attempts with five different players making two threes.

Christian Negron led the Lakers with 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting. The only shots he missed on the night came at the line (3-6). Jake Van Tubbergen produced a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds.
 
UP NEXT
PNW will host Davenport in Saturday's GLIAC doubleheader in Hammond. The women's game will tip off at 1 p.m. CST, followed by the men's matchup at approximately 3 p.m. inside the Fitness & Recreation Center.
 
FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest men's basketball, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics & @PNWBasketball) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.