HILLSDALE - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team had a chance to seal the #2 seed in the 2015 GLIAC Tournament as the Cardinals traveled to play at Hillsdale College on Thursday (Feb. 26) evening. SVSU was unable to come out with the victory, however, as the Chargers came out on top in a close contest by a final score of 65-61.
The loss, coupled with Michigan Tech and Ferris State victories as well, drops the Cards to the #4 overall seed in the GLIAC Tournament. SVSU will play #5 Findlay on Wednesday at 6:00 pm in SVSU's O'Neill Arena.
Sophomore Garrett Hall scored the first four points for SVSU in Thursday night's game, giving the Cards a 4-0 advantage at the 18:02 marker.
After Hillsdale trook a brief lead, SVSU got it back and built its largest lead of the game at five points with the score 17-12 and 9:16 left to play in the half.
The Cardinals led 26-24 after Hall drilled a pair of free throws with 1:37 showing on the clock, but Hillsdale scored consecutive baskets to close-out the scoring for the half, heading into the break on top by a score of 28-26.
Hall had eight first half points to lead the scoring for SV while fellow sophomore Caleb Davis added seven. Junior Kellen Smith added six first half rebounds.
Sophomore C.J. Turnage knotted the game at 28-28 with an early second half layup, but Hillsdale grabbed the lead back and built it out to its largest margin of eight points at 38-30 with 16:44 to play.
The Chargers would retain that edge all the way until the 6:53 marker, as that's when Hall and junior Damon Bozeman connected on buckets to tie the game at 51-51.
The Cardinals tied the game three more times from there in-between Hillsdale leads, but the home squad used solid foul shooting down the stretch to claim a 65-61 victory.
Hall finished with a game-high 21 points in the contest. He was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" while adding three rebounds, two assists and a steal as well.
Bozeman added 11 points and Turnage had 10 with five rebounds. Smith added seven points, seven boards and three assists against the Chargers.
The Cards held a 31-28 edge in rebounding, including nine offensive rebounds.
Saginaw Valley falls to 20-8 at the conclusion of the regular season with a 16-6 mark in the GLIAC. The Chargers improve to 13-13 overall and an even 11-11 in league play. Despite the victory over the Cardinals, a Northwood victory over Lake Superior State knocked Hillsdale out of this year's tournament, as the teams were in a battle for the eighth and final spot.
The loss, coupled with Michigan Tech and Ferris State victories, drops the Cards to the #4 overall seed in the GLIAC Tournament. SVSU will play #5 Findlay on Wednesday at 6:00 pm in SVSU's James E. O'Neill Jr. Arena. Saginaw Valley claimed the only meeting this year between the two teams, an 82-75 decision on January 8th in University Center.