CANTON, Ohio – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team opened up 2015 on the road on Friday (Dec. 2) night against the Malone University Pioneers in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) matchup. The Cardinals used a pair of 20-plus point performances to pull away from the Pioneers in the second half for the 19-point win. The 73-54 victory was the seventh consecutive for SVSU.
The Cardinals took an early 6-4 lead as sophomore Garrett Hall made good on a layup at the 15:54 mark of the first half. Malone took its first lead of the night at 9-8 following a three-pointer, but junior guard Sterling Johnson answered on the next possession to retake the lead (10-9) with 13:25 remaining in the opening frame.
Sophomore C.J. Turnage scored three consecutive points for SVSU to put the visitors on top by a score of 14-11 with just over nine minutes remaining on the clock. The Pioneers took a 20-18 advantage with 5:08 left, but the Cards answered with four straight points to retake the lead at 22-20 at the 3:16 marker. SV held the lead for the remainder of the half.
Hall scored the final nine points of the opening frame for the Cardinals, including three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to extend the Cardinal lead up to nine points (31-22) with 43 seconds to play. Malone added a layup to make the score 31-24, which is where the teams would head into the halftime break at.
SVSU was led by Hall, who scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting including 2-of-5 from behind the arc. Junior Damon Bozeman recorded six points and three rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
SV shot 44.4 percent (12-for-27) from the field compared to 39.3 percent (11-for-28) for Malone. The Cards out-rebounded the Pioneers by a 17-16 margin and forced 10 turnovers in the opening period.
The Cardinals opened the second half by scoring the first six points, capped by a pair of free throws by Hall to take a 37-24 advantage at the 17:55 mark. Malone answered with an 11-1 run to cut the SVSU lead down to three points (38-35) with just over 13 minutes remaining in the second half.
Bozeman went on to score the next seven of eight points in the game to put the road team back up by a score of 45-36 at the 11:48 marker of the half. The Pioneers used a pair of layups to pull back within five points at 45-40 with about 10 and a half minutes left, but that is as close as the home team would get the rest of the way.
A Hall jumper and Bozeman triple on back-to-back possessions pushed the lead back up to double-digits at 54-42 with 8:25 remaining on the clock.
SV closed out the final 7:18 minutes of action by scoring 19 points, including 7-of-8 shooting from the charity stripe. The Cardinals opened up their largest lead of the game (19 points) after Bozeman connected on his third three-pointer of the game with 28 seconds left on the clock to make the final score 73-54.
SVSU was led by Meijer "Player of the Game" Garrett Hall who finished with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting. The sophomore had four rebounds in the contest as well. Junior Damon Bozeman finished the night scoring 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-5 from behind the arc.
Turnage chipped in with 14 points and seven boards while junior Kellen Smith finished with six points, five assists, three steals, and two blocks in the victory.
The Cardinals shot 48 percent (24-for-50) from the floor and out-scored the Pioneers by a 20-7 margin at the free throw line. SVSU held the advantage on the glass (36-35), points off turnovers (20-14), and fastbreak points (10-2).
Saginaw Valley (8-2, 5-0 GLIAC) concludes its weekend trip to Ohio on Sunday (Dec. 4) afternoon against Walsh University (5-4, 1-4 GLIAC) at Alumni Hall in a GLIAC matchup. Game time is scheduled for 3:00 pm against the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers defeated the Cardinals last season at O'Neill Arena by a final score of 67-65 on a last second tip-in as the buzzer sounded. The all-time series is tied between the two schools, 1-1.