UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team dropped its first game back from the holiday break to Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) opponent Malone University on Thursday night (Jan. 2) by a score of 91-77.
The Cardinals took the first lead of the game on a Damon Bozeman jumper, giving the team a 2-0 lead. In the next few minutes of the game the home team would fight through two turnovers and four missed layups to regain the lead, 13-11 heading in to the first media timeout.
Freshman forward Caleb Davis drained a free throw at the 13:17 mark, giving the Cards a 14-12 lead. Both teams were held scoreless until Malone's Daniel Wise made good on a layup followed by a free throw. The three point play would give the Pioneers a 15-14 lead.
Back-to-back three pointers by Garrett Hall and Bozeman with eight minutes left to play in the first half fueled a Cardinal scoring drive. Hall would continue draining the deep ball by making three straight shots from beyond the arc, giving the team a 41-36 point lead with 1:45 remaining in the opening half.
Six straight Cory Veldhuizen points for Malone, however, would give the visitors a 42-41 lead at the half.
SVSU started out the second half with points coming from multiple players. The team effort came from buckets by Kalen Foreman, Michael Fugate, C.J. Turnage, Vincent Adams and Bozeman, capped by Hall's fifth triple of the game. The scoring spree led to Saginaw Valley regaining the lead 60-59 at the 10:49 mark. Turnage would continue his hot shooting, scoring eight of the next ten Cardinal points.
The scoring deficit got down to four points, but that is as close as the Cardinals would get before Malone closed out for the 91-77 victory.
SVSU shot 55.7% (34-61) from the field and 41.2% (7-12) from long distance in the contest.
Malone won the battle on the boards with 38 rebounds while Saginaw Valley accounted for 19 team assists.
C.J. Turnage scored a career-high 22 points while adding six assists and nine rebounds. He was selected as the Meijer "Player of the Game" for his efforts.
Garrett Hall led the Cardinals with a career-high 23 points due to his stellar three point shooting, making good on five of his seven attempts.
Saginaw Valley falls to 5-4 overall and 1-4 in the conference after the loss. Malone improves to 5-4 on the season and 3-2 in the GLIAC. The Cardinals are back at home on Saturday (Jan. 4) as they take on visiting Walsh University. Tip-off is set for 3:00pm. The Cavaliers enter the game with a 7-2 record and a 3-2 conference record.