LAKELAND, Fla. - Saint Leo men's basketball fought hard in a near-upset of No. 23 Grand Valley State Saturday to close out play at the Terrace Hotel Thanksgiving Classic at Streamline Sale Arena inside the George W. Jenkins Field House at Florida Southern College.

"I loved the way we fought tonight against another very good top-25 team," Head Coach Lance Randall commented following the game. "We have to learn to finish games. We left a lot of points on the board with missed free throws earlier. We strung together some key stops and made some big shots inside of 8 minutes, but a couple of empty possessions inside of that last-minute was killer."

Randall added, "With three new starters, we are still finding our way, unfortunately, the competition has been so good there is little margin for error. We need to continue to make a jump defensively in the next couple of weeks.  No time to feel sorry for ourselves with two big SSC games coming up."

After winning Friday's matchup with (RV) St. Edward's, the Lions (3-3) looked to give the Lakers (5-0) a tough matchup and they did just that. Saint Leo trailed by 12 points with eight minutes to play, but thanks to sharp three-point shooting, the Lions closed the gap to just two points on four straight threes but the Green and Gold. The two teams would battle to a 65-65 tie with two minutes to go before Jared Coomer's layup gave Saint Leo the two-point advantage. GVSU answered quickly with a three from Isaac Gassman to take a 68-67 lead with 1:14 on the clock. Missed free throws by the Lakers down the stretch opened the door for the Green and Gold with possession and on their offensive half of the court with just 3.5 remaining. Frank Webb Jr. would get the shot off but it would not fall through the net as the Lakers squeaked out a one-point win. 

Saint Leo opened the game with a quick advantage, leading 11-4 and 14-8 in the first eight minutes of action before Grand Valley State battled to take a 35-33 lead into the half after Rob Fry II converted a last-second jumper to cut it to just the two-point difference. 

Wade Coomer paced the team in scoring with 16 points on 4-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc and a 4-for-7 night from the free-throw line. Frank Webb Jr. was right behind Coomer's 16 with 13 of his own while adding a team-best six rebounds, four assists and three steals. When the final horn sounded, Jared Coomer stood at nine points, Francis Sio, Rob Fry II, and Luke Haasl were all at eight points apiece. Grant Disken rounded out the scorers for the Green and Gold with five points. 

Three Lakers were in double-figures led by Isaac Gassman's game-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor. Jake Van Tubbergen tallied a double-double in the win with 10 points, 10 rebounds as Jordan Harris chipped in 11 points for GVSU. 

Up Next
Saint Leo will head back into Sunshine State Conference play Wednesday, Dec. 1 with a trip to St. Petersburg for a 7:30 p.m. tilt with Eckerd College. 

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