MOUNT PLEASANT - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team traveled to play the Central Michigan University Chippewas in both teams' first and only exhibition game of the 2014-15 season. Despite out-scoring CMU in the second half (30-28) and holding a lead with under five minutes to play, SVSU fell in the contest by a final score of 68-61.
After taking the first lead of the game, the Cards tied the game at the 13:37 mark after junior Sterling Johnson drilled a three-pointer to make the score 11-11. SV would take a brief lead after a Wade Gelhaus layup made the score 13-12 with 12:52 left in the opening half.
Central Michigan would score nine straight from there, making its lead 21-13 with 10:33 remaining. The Chips pushed the lead out to as many as 12 points (37-25) at the 3:09 marker, which is the most they would lead by the entire game.
SVSU cut into that lead and used a pair of Garrett Hall freebies to make the score 40-31 heading into the halftime break.
Hall had seven first half points to lead the Cards while Mitchell Baenziger added six, knocking down a pair of triples. Junior Damon Bozeman had team-highs of four rebounds and three assists in the opening 20 minutes of action.
SV hit five three-pointers in the first half but struggled at the free-throw line, going just 4-of-10. Both teams were almost even as far as shooting percentage is concerned, with CMU holding a slight 44.4% to 40.7% edge.
The Cardinals chipped-away at the Chippewa lead in the second half and grabbed a 50-49 advantage at the 11:28 mark after three-straight triples. Bozeman hit two in a row and Johnson drilled the third.
The score would bounce back-and-forth a bit and SV took its largest lead of three points with 6:46 left to play after Baenziger made good on a layup to make the score 57-54.
CMU extended the lead from there after a one point SVSU lead at the 4:48 mark but a C.J. Turnage layup with 2:08 left cut the lead to 62-61.
That's as close as the Cards would get, however, as the Chips pushed the lead out to seven points at 68-61, which is what the final score would be.
Turnage finished with team-highs in points (12) and rebounds (6) in the contest, going 6-of-15 from the floor.
Sophomore Caleb Davis had a team-high 12 points as well, going 3-of-6 from three and adding four rebounds and three assists.
Hall and Bozeman chipped-in with nine points-apiece, with Bozeman recording a team-high six boards and four helpers. Baenziger added eight points for the Cardinals.
SVSU shot 46.2% in the final period and finished with a mark of 43.4% for the game compared to the Chippewas' 41.2%. The two teams each had 24 points in the paint and the Cards held the advantage in fast break points, 12-6. The Cardinal bench also out-scored Central's by a 19-10 edge.
After shooting 10 free-throws in the first half, SVSU didn't attempt a single foul shot in the second frame while the Chippewas had 17 attempts from the charity stripe.
Saginaw Valley returns to the court on Friday, as the Cardinals host a pair of games this weekend as part of the 2014 GLIAC/GLVC Challenge to open regular season play. SVSU plays St. Joseph's (Ind.) on Friday at 5:30 pm before hosting #16 Bellarmine on Saturday in a 7:30 pm contest.