UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team handed the first-place Michigan Tech University Huskies a 71-69 loss in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) North Division contest on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 25).
The Cardinals got their first six points of the game from freshman forward C.J. Turnage and the team led by a 6-2 mark just over three minutes into the contest.
SVSU continued to lead and pushed its lead out to as much as 12 points when the home team was up by a score of 40-28 with 1:08 left to play in the half following four-straight points from sophomore guard Damon Bozeman.
The Huskies scored six points inside of the final minute of the half, however, capped-off by an Austin Armga runner at the buzzer to cut the Cardinal lead to 40-34 heading into the break.
Bozeman had a team-high 10 points in the first 20 minutes of play, adding five rebounds. Turnage netted nine points and three assists in the first half.
Saginaw Valley shot 59.3% in the opening half and Tech was an even 50.0% from the floor. The Cardinals posted a slight 13-12 edge in rebounding.
The Cardinals pushed their lead back out to double-digits in the second half, leading 47-37 at the 16:40 marker after a triple from freshman guard Garrett Hall.
The visitors from Houghton grabbed a one point lead at 53-52 with 9:49 left to play. The lead would bounce back-and-forth a bit from there, and Saginaw Valley found itself up only two points with 2:17 left in the game and the score 66-64.
With the ball in SV's possession and the shot clock about to expire, Hall fired-up a deep three-point attempt just before the buzzer sounded and found the bottom of the net, extending the Cardinal lead to 69-64.
Five-straight Tech points in a span of 39 seconds brought the score to the game's fourth tie at 69 points-apiece with just over a minute showing on the game clock.
After a Husky foul and the Cards in the double-bonus, Bozeman went to the line and hit his second attempt, making the score 70-69. A miss from Michigan Tech's Armga and a defensive rebound from SV sophomore guard Sterling Johnson would force the visitors to put Johnson on the line with a foul.
With six seconds left to play, Johnson sank the first freebie and missed the second. Armga grabbed the rebound for Tech and pushed the ball quickly down the floor. He attempted a runner off the glass just before the buzzer sounded for the tie, but the shot was no good and SVSU held-on for the 71-69 victory.
Hall was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" after scoring a team-high 19 points, including the clutch three as the shot clock was expiring.
Bozeman added 17 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Turnage was the only other Cardinal to reach double-figures in scoring, netting 13 points and a game-high four assists.
SVSU shot 52.2% for the game while the Huskies posted a 46.9 shooting percentage.
With the victory, Saginaw Valley improves to 7-9 overall and 3-9 in the GLIAC while Michigan Tech falls to 12-4 overall and 8-4 in league play.
The Cardinals play host to Grand Valley State University in an 8:00 pm contest on Thursday (Jan. 30) in a GLIAC North Division matchup.