COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team began the 2014-15 GLIAC portion of the schedule on the road against Ohio Dominican University.  Facing a six point halftime deficit (38-32), the Cardinals posted a strong second half to outscore the home squad 41-31 and finish with a 73-69 victory over the Panthers.

At the 17:02 marker of the first half and after a triple from sophomore Garrett Hall tied the game at 3-3, junior Kellen Smith made a free throw to give the Cardinals their first lead of the game at 4-3.

The Panthers took the lead from there and built the advantage out to nine points with the score 17-8 and 11:50 left to play in the first half.

Saginaw Valley would go on a 15-6 run from that point, using layup by junior Vincent Adams to knot the score at 23-23 with 6:10 left on the first half clock.

The teams traded leads from there but ODU would once again build a lead at 38-30 with 1:07 left in the opening period.

Hall made good on two free throws with 15 seconds showing on the first half clock, cutting the deficit to 38-32, which is what the score would be heading into the halftime break.

Hall netted nine first half points with four rebounds while Smith had five assists and three points.

ODU began the second half by building its largest lead of the contest, using a layup to make the score 43-33 with 18:28 left to play.

The Cardinals would begin working their way back and, trailing by a score of 59-53, used four points each from Hall and sophomore C.J. Turnage as part of an 8-0 run to grab a 61-59 lead at the 6:02 marker of the game.

After a brief Panther lead, junior Mitchell Baenziger made good on a three point play to tie the game once again, this time 64-64 with 3:50 left in the game.

SVSU would grab the lead from there and work it out to five points with the score 72-67 after a pair of free throws from sophomore Caleb Davis with just 20 seconds remaining.

Each team scored once more in the final seconds and the Cardinals held on for the four point victory, 73-69.

Turnage led the way for the Cards, posting a double-double with season-highs of 21 points and 13 rebounds.  The 13 rebounds also marks a career-high for the sophomore forward.  He was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" for his performance.

Hall posted season-bests in both categories as well, netting a game-high 23 points and six boards for SVSU.  The 23 points tied a career-high as well, a mark he set three times in the 2013-14 season. 

Sophomore Wade Gelhaus added seven points and five boards for SV while Smith had seven assists to go along with three points.

Saginaw Valley posted a 40-34 edge in rebounding and committed just 10 turnovers while forcing 16 for the home team.  The Cardinals held a 44-34 advantage in points in the paint and doubled-up the Panthers in fastbreak points, 12-6.

The Cards struggled from the charity stripe in the contest, going just 16-of-32 in the game.

SVSU improves to 3-2 after the victory and 1-0 in the GLIAC while Ohio Dominican falls to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in league play.

The Cardinals travel to play Tiffin University on Saturday (12/6) for a 3:00 pm matchup with the Dragons.