UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team fell at home to the #25-ranked Lake Superior State University Lakers by a score of 63-52 in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) North Division matchup on Thursday night (Feb. 6).
Freshman Garrett Hall gave the game its first score with a jumper just over two minutes into the contest and a layup from sophomore guard Vincent Adams at the 13:54 mark made the Cardinal lead six points at 10-4.
SVSU led up until there was 7:23 left to play in the first half. That's when Jake Blake hit a three-pointer to give Lake Superior its first lead of the game at 20-19.
The Lakers would lead by as many as seven points (26-19), but the Cardinals would cut the deficit to three points heading into the halftime break, trailing 30-27.
The Lakers held a 22-10 advantage in points in the paint and had a 19-13 rebounding edge over SVSU. Both teams shot relatively even for the first 20 minutes of play, as Saginaw Valley posted a 44.0 shooting percentage while Lake State hit on 42.9% of its shots.
Hall led all scorers in the first half with seven points while freshman forward C.J. Turnage had five first half rebounds.
The second half saw LSSU lead by as many as 18 points with the score 55-37 at the 7:31 marker. The Cards would answer, however, with an 8-0 run to make the score 55-45 with 3:44 left to play.
A Hall triple with 1:53 remaining drew SVSU to within eight points, but that's as close as the Cardinals would get, as Lake State pushed its lead back out to 11 points and closed-out for the 63-52 victory.
The Lakers finished the contest with a 37-31 edge on the glass and out-shot the Cardinals 44.0% to 40.0%.
Turnage was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" after scoring 11 points and grabbing a team-high seven boards, adding three assists.
Hall had a team-best 16 points and sophomore guard Damon Bozeman added seven points.
With the loss, Saginaw Valley falls to 7-12 overall and 3-12 in the GLIAC while Lake State improves to 21-3 overall and 13-3 in league play.
The Cardinals begin a four-game road trip on Saturday (Feb. 8) with a game at Wayne State University. Start time for the contest is set for 3:00 pm and the game will be televised on Comcast Channel 900.