UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team lost its Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) opening game at home to the Ohio Dominican University Panthers by a score of 76-69.
The Cardinals led at the 15:28 mark of the first half after a tip-in from freshman forward Caleb Davis, making the score 10-9.
Ohio Dominican would grab the lead from there and extended its lead out to nine points on two different occasions, the latter coming with 9:10 left in the opening half when the score was 25-16.
The Panthers carried a 37-29 lead into the half.
ODU out-shot the Cardinals in the first 20 minutes, recording a 45.5% shooting mark compared to SVSU's 39.3%. Saginaw Valley held a 23-19 advantage in rebounding in the half.
Sophomore guard Damon Bozeman led all scorers in the first with eight points while Davis added four points and a game-high six rebounds for the first period.
The Panthers led throughout the second period, with SVSU drawing to within four points with 5:18 left in the game after a pair of free throws from sophomore guard Kellen Smith.
That's as close as the Cards would get, however, as ODU held onto the lead and finished with a seven point advantage, 76-69.
Bozeman led all scorers in the game with 18 points, adding five rebounds. Freshman guard Garrett Hall had 11 points and five boards.
Freshman forward Wade Gelhaus narrowly missed out on his first double-double, as he posted nine points and a game-high nine rebounds in being named the Meijer "Player of the Game."
Saginaw finished with a 49-38 edge in the rebounding category. The edge at the free throw line went ODU's way, as the Panthers were 22-of-29 (75.9%) and the Cardinals shot just 12-of-23 (52.2%) from the charity stripe.
The Cardinals fall to 4-1 overall and 0-1 in the GLIAC after the defeat while the Panthers improve to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in league play.
SVSU returns to action at home on Saturday (Dec. 7) against the Tiffin University Dragons. Tip-off is set for 3:00 pm in O'Neill Arena.