UNIVERSITY CENTER - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team hosted St. Joseph's College (Ind.) in both teams' 2014-15 season-openers as part of the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge Friday evening (11/14). Getting double-digit scoring from three players, led by redshirt freshman Devin Dixon's game-high 21, SVSU held off a late charge by the Pumas and claimed an 87-81 victory at SVSU's O'Neill Arena.
The Cards jumped out front early and had a six point lead after Mitchell Baenziger hit a jumper to put them up 10-4 at the 15:40 mark of the first half.
The lead would hold true until there was 7:15 left in the half, as that's when St. Joe's took its first lead of the game at 19-18 after a made basket.
After SVSU tied the game at 27-27 with 4:46 to play in the period on a Dixon three-point play, the Pumas went on a 10-0 run to gain a 37-27 lead with just 2:49 left in the period.
Saginaw Valley would cut into that lead, however, in the final stretch to cut the deficit to four points at 38-34 heading into the halftime break.
C.J. Turnage led in scoring for the opening 20 minutes of play, notching 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting with five rebounds and three assists. Dixon had seven and Baenziger added six first half points.
St. Joe's led all the way until the 13:31 marker of the second half. That's where SV capped-off a 7-0 run to take a 53-51 advantage after a pair of Damon Bozeman free throws that followed a Baenziger triple and a Dixon layup.
After a couple of brief ties, the Cardinals extended their lead out to as many as 18 points three different times, the last coming with 3:20 left to play and the score 82-64.
The Pumas would make a late push, however, and go on an 8-0 run to pull within 10 points at 82-72.
St. Joseph's stayed tough, but the Cardinals finished and followed-up a three-pointer from the visitors that made the score 85-81 with a pair of Kellen Smith freebies to seal the six point victory, 87-81.
Dixon was chosen as the Meijer "Player of the Game" for his performance with 21 points on 10-of-10 shooting from the floor. He added seven rebounds against the Pumas in 19 minutes off the bench.
Baenziger had 18 in his SVSU debut as well while playing 32 minutes off the bench. He knocked-down five shots and went a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.
Turnage finished with 17 points, a game-high 11 boards and five assists for the Cardinals while Smith had six points, eight rebounds and tied a career-high with nine assists.
SVSU shot 51.5% (35-68) from the floor and out-rebounded the Pumas by a 42-27 margin. The Cardinals dominated the points in the paint category by a 60-28 count and had 17 fastbreak points against the Puma press while allowing just two fastbreak points. SV's bench posted a 48-25 advantage as well.
"We did some good things and some bad today," said SVSU Head Coach Randy Baruth, who begins his third season at the helm of the Cardinal men's team. "We really have a lot of things to learn from coming out of this game. It was great for us to play against a lot of pressure and figure out a way to break it. Defensively, we were solid but still have a ways to go. It was a great victory to begin the season and we look forward to playing a very tough Bellarmine team tomorrow."
The Cardinals play preseason #16 and 2011 National Champion Bellarmine University on Saturday evening at 7:30 pm. The Knights faced Northwood University in their season opener in the game following SVSU and St. Joseph's on Friday night, defeating the Timberwolves by a score of 84-67.
