ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team dropped a 77-69 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) contest at Grand Valley State Thursday night (Feb. 20).
Saginaw Valley falls to 5-14 in the GLIAC and 9-14 overall while Grand Valley State improves to 13-7 in the conference and 17-7 on the season.
Sterling Johnson started the game off with a quick jumper, giving the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Garrett Hall at the 9:03 mark gave SV a 22-18 lead, its largest advantage of the game.
The Lakers fought back to tie the game at 22-22 on a Rob Woodson layup. GV owned the scoreboard for the remainder of the half and would enter halftime with a 36-31 lead.
Hall led Saginaw Valley in scoring for the half with 10 points and added a pair of rebounds, an assist and a steal.
The Lakers out-shot the Cardinals 51.9% (14-27) to 48.0% (12-25), while SVSU made 37.5% (6-16) compared to GVSU's 22.2% (2-9) from beyond the arc in the opening half.
Damon Bozeman drained a three-pointer to start the second half, bringing Saginaw Valley to within two points before Ryan Sabin duplicated the three-point play the next Laker posession.
Both teams had a scoring drought from the 17:00 mark until a C.J. Turnage layup ended it with a layup at the 14:39 mark. Another Turnage bucket the next tirip down the floor re-gained the Cardinal lead 42-41 for the first time since the opening minutes.
A Sabin three gave the Lakers their lead back with 10:25 left to play.
An 8-0 SVSU run cut the GVSU lead to 64-61, but that is as close as the Cardinals would get. The Lakers extended their lead in the closing minutes before finishing the contest with a 77-69 victory.
Grand Valley shot 52% (26-50) from the floor while Saginaw Valley made good on 48.2% (27-56) of its shots from the field. GVSU out-rebounded SVSU 33-30 in the contest.
Turnage's team-high 25 points and seven rebound effort earned him Meijer "Player of the Game" accolades.
Hall finished the game with 21 points, four rebounds and an assistant.
The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday (Feb. 22) as they return home to take on visiting Ferris State in the teams' first matchup of the season. Tip is set for 7:00 pm at O'Neill Arena.