UNIVERSITY CENTER – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team returned home from a two-game stretch in Ohio and hosted the Ashland University Eagles on Sunday afternoon (Dec. 14) for a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) matchup. The Cardinals held a five-point halftime lead before shooting an impressive 57.9 percent from the floor in the second half to defeat the Eagles 70-58 at O'Neill Arena.
SVSU opened the contest scoring the first seven of nine points to take a 7-2 lead following a made Garrett Hall jumper at the 17:03 mark. The Eagles pulled to within one point at 10-9 after a three-point basket, but the Cardinals scored the next six points capped by a Mitchell Baenziger triple to take a 16-9 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
SV took its largest lead of the opening frame at 20-11 after sophomore Caleb Davis made a layup at the 9:31 marker of the first half. Ashland cut the Cardinal lead down to three points, but a pair of field goals by sophomore C.J. Turnage and junior Damon Bozeman extended the lead back out to 26-17 with four and a half minutes remaining in the first half.
Junior Kellen Smith made good on a pair of free throws to give the Cards a 30-23 lead with a minute left in the opening half. The Eagles netted a jump shot on the next possession to make the score 30-25. Both teams would miss three-point attempts to close out the half and head into the halftime break with the score 30-25 in the Cardinals favor.
Saginaw Valley was led by Baenziger, who scored eight points in the first 20 minutes of action. Hall and Bozeman each chipped-in with seven points in the opening frame.
The Cardinal defense forced 12 Eagle turnovers and shot 10-of-24 (41.7%) from the floor while Ashland finished 10-of-21 (47.6%) in the first half.
Ashland opened the second half on a 7-2 run to tie the score at 32 with 16:55 remaining on the clock. SVSU answered with a pair of Bozeman field goals and a Hall three-point basket to cap a 7-0 run and regain a 39-32 lead at the 15:26 mark.
SV took a double-digit lead following a Turnage layup to make the score 46-36 with 12:07 to play in the second half. The Cardinals then used a three-point play from Bozeman on the next offensive possession to open up a 13-point lead at 49-36 with less than 12 minutes to play.
The Eagles scored the nine points to cut the Cardinal lead down to four at 49-45 with less than eight minutes to play, but that is as close as the visiting team would get the remainder of the game.
A pair of field goals on back-to-back possessions by Turnage gave SV a 58-49 lead with 3:29 remaining in the contest. Following a couple free throws by Baenziger and Turnage, the Cardinals opened up their largest lead of the game at 65-51 with less than two minutes to go. SVSU made five of its last six free throw attempts to close out for the 12-point victory.
Bozeman scored a team-high 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed a season-high seven rebounds to lead the Cardinals. He was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" for his performance.
Hall knocked down a pair of triples and netted 14 points while Turnage had 14 points as well with three rebounds and four assists. Baenziger finished with nine points and Smith scored a season-high eight points to go along with his three assists.
SV finished the game shooting 21-for-43 (48.8%) from the field and forced 18 Ashland turnovers. The Cardinals out-scored the Eagles 24-16 from the charity stripe in the game.
Saginaw Valley (5-2, 3-0 GLIAC) returns to the court on Tuesday (Dec. 16) for a 7:30 pm matchup with Lake Erie College at O'Neill Arena. Lake Erie is coming off a 68-58 loss to Hillsdale on Sunday and have a record of 4-3 overall with a 1-2 mark in the GLIAC this season. The Storm defeated the Cardinals last season, 79-73 in Painesville, Ohio.