UNIVERSITY CENTER - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team hosted Great Lakes Christian College in a non-conference matchup at SVSU's O'Neill Arena on Tuesday night (11/25). The Cardinals led wire-to-wire in the contest, posting a victory by a score of 99-53.
SVSU scored the opening 11 points of the contest, leading 11-0 at the 17:41 mark after a three-point play by sophomore Caleb Davis.
After leading 22-10, the Cards went on a 15-0 run to push their lead out to 37-10 after a good layup on a breakaway by junior Mitchell Baenziger with 7:10 left to play in the opening half.
The Cardinals would open up their largest lead of the first 20 minutes after freshman Will Stuhr converted a three point play with just seven seconds left to play, sending the teams into the locker room at the half with the score 55-19.
The 55 first half points marked the most points in a single half since last year's 60 put up on Grace Bible College in the second half of a 97-73 victory on November 26th of 2013.
Saginaw Valley held a commanding 34-0 advantage in points in the paint for the first 20 minutes. The Cards also led 15-0 in second chance points, 10-0 on the fast break and the bench outscored the Crusader bench by a 31-10 count.
Sophomores Garrett Hall and Jon Marosi led the scoring effort in the first half, each reaching double-digits with 10 points. Davis added eight points while Stuhr had five points and five boards.
SVSU continued to lead, but the Crusaders pulled to within 27 points at the 9:43 marker when the score was 73-46.
That's as close as GLCC would get, as the Cardinals would open up a big lead, leading by as many as 48 points with 53 seconds left after senior Lindsey Johnson hit back-to-back triples to make the score 99-51.
Great Lakes would add one more bucket and the final score would read 99-53 as the clock expired.
SV finished with a 58-6 advantage in the paint and the Cardinals bench outscored the bench by a score of 63-15.
Stuhr was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" after finishing with 14 points and six rebounds in his first significant playing time of the 2014-15 season, adding three assists. He was one of five Cardinals to finish with double-figures in scoring.
Hall had a game-high 15 points and three boards while Marosi added a dozen points to tie a career-high and added six rebounds as well.
Johnson had 12 points, four assists and three rebounds while redshirt freshman Devin Dixon had 10 points and five boards.
Junior Kellen Smith had a game-high eight assists for the Cards while senior Kalen Foreman had a game-high seven rebounds to go along with four points on a pair of dunks.
Saginaw Valley hits the road for its next contest, as the Cards begin GLIAC play for the 2014-15 season in a weekend swing through the state of Ohio. SVSU plays at Ohio Dominican on Thursday, December 4th at 7:30 pm before taking-on Tiffin on Saturday, December 6th in a 3:00 pm tilt.
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