SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - The No. 14 Lake Superior State (LSSU) men's basketball team (17-3, 8-2 GLIAC) put together a dominant 79-49 performance over Upper Peninsula rival Northern Michigan (12-6, 6-4 GLIAC) on Saturday.

The Lakers got off to a hot start, taking an 8-0 lead behind sharp shooting by Tyson Edmondson (Ypsilanti, Mich.) and Hunter Soper (Lexington, Mich.). Edmondson continued to press the attack with a pair of dunks inside, including a strong alley-oop finish off a feed from Devin Womack (Ypsilanti, Mich.). The Lakers pressed their attack, letting it fly from beyond the arc to power their way to a 19-0 run to blow the game wide open with Womack, Drew Hess (Oscoda, Mich.), and Harrison Sorrelle (Grand Haven, Mich.) all getting in on the action. Both teams would then trade blows, but Womack would find Kingsley Perkins (Ypsilanti, Mich.) in the final seconds of the half to give LSSU a 45-27 lead going into the break.

Soper and Edmondson would each hit a three early in the second half to keep the Lakers on the attack, and an emphatic dunk from Adam Harakow (Edmonton, Alta.) following a steal by Edmondson capped off a 9-0 Laker run to extend the lead to 29. Back-to-back threes from Soper would then give LSSU its largest lead of the night at a margin of 35 points, and the Lakers closed out a dominant victory to place themselves in a tie for first place in the GLIAC standings.

Edmondson led all players in scoring with 23 points. Meanwhile Soper also finished in double figures with 14 points of his own while Perkins ended the night with 9 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. 

The Lakers will now turn their attention to a battle with Ferris State in the Bud Cooper Gymnasium on Thursday, Jan. 30 with first place in the league standings on the line with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.