MIDLAND - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team headed into Saturday (Feb. 7) evening's matchup with Northwood University tied with Ferris State for first place in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). The Bulldogs dropped a contest to Northern Michigan, giving the Cardinals the opportunity to move into first place by themselves. The Cardinals did just that, posting a 76-72 victory over the Timberwolves to complete a regular season sweep of their rivals in what was another exciting game between the two teams.
The victory moved SVSU to 19-4 overall on the season with a 15-2 mark in the GLIAC. Northwood fell to 12-11 and 8-9 in league play after the defeat. It was the first home loss of the 2014-15 season for Northwood
The home team built a quick nine point lead with the score 11-2 at the 17:19 mark.
Back-to-back layups from C.J. Turnage and a pair of free throws by Garrett Hall cut the lead to three points at 11-8 with with 14:06 to play in the half.
The Cardinals grabbed their first lead of the game at the 10:17 marker after Caleb Davis drilled a three-pointer to make the score 16-15. The visitors continued their string of 15-straight points to extend the lead to 10 points (25-15) with 7:46 showing on the clock, as the run was capped by a pair of Turnage freebies.
The Timberwolves worked their way back and knotted the score at 34-34 following a 10-0 run. After the teams traded buckets, Davis hit a triple with just four seconds left in the half to give SVSU a 39-36 edge heading into halftime.
The Cards shot well in the first half, hitting on 58.3% (14-24) of their shots and owning an 18-8 advantage in points in the paint.
Turnage had 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting, adding four rebounds and two assists in the first frame while Davis was 3-of-3 from beyond the arc for nine points.
Saginaw Valley built its lead out to six points (46-40) after two Damon Bozeman layups and a thunderous slam dunk by Turnage in what was a very closely-contested second half. The six point spread was the largest for either team the rest of the way.
The Cardinals held the lead all the way until the 11:31 marker of the second half when Northwood's Dylan Lankabel hit a triple to make the score 51-48 in the home team's favor.
The game would be tied several more times and the score stood at 65-65 with just 2:34 showing on the clock.
After a Bozeman layup that was answered by a Will Bowles three-point play from Northwood, Bozeman responded with a three-point play of his own. A Hall layup would follow and give SVSU a 71-68 advantage with 1:23 to play.
A Kellen Smith layup with 50 seconds left made the score 72-70 in SV's favor, but that was answered by a pair of freebies from Northwood's Maurice Jones to knot the score at 72-72.
A Bozeman free throw made the score 73-72 with 24 seconds showing and a Timberwolf foul would put Hall on the line with 14 seconds to play. He would come through in the clutch, drilling both freebie shots to make the score 75-72.
Northwood ran an out-of-bounds play to try and free-up Langkabel, who had connected on six three-pointers to that point, to try and knot the game. The Cardinal defense took away that option but Jermaine Myers had an open look at a triple. His shot was no good and the defensive rebound was secured by Smith.
Smith was fouled immediately, putting him on the line with 0.7 seconds left with a chance to seal the deal. He hit on the second free throw, securing a four-point victory for the Cardinals at 76-72. It was one of his six points he had on the night to go along with five assists and two rebounds.
Turnage led a group of four Cardinals to score in double-figures. He was 7-of-7 from the floor and notched a team-high 18 points, grabbing five rebounds and adding three helpers for the Cards. He was chosen as the Meijer "Player of the Game" for his efforts.
Hall had 13 points and a team-best seven boards and Davis had 13 with four boards. Bozeman also netted 13 points, adding five rebounds and two assists as well.
Saginaw Valley continues on its extremely difficult stretch fo finish the regular season. It begins with a road trip to the Upper Peninsula for games against Northern Michigan (Thursday | 5:30 pm) and Michigan Tech (Saturday | 3:00 pm). The Cardinals defeated Northern 65-43 and dropped a 66-58 contest to Michigan Tech in the earlier matchups this season.