UNIVERSITY CENTER - The SVSU men's basketball team hosted the University of Findlay on Wednesday (Mar. 4) evening at the James E. O'Neill Jr. Arena. The Cardinals protected their home floor in the GLIAC Tournament Quarterfinals matchup, holding off a late Findlay charge to post a 69-62 victory over the Oilers.
The win marked the first in the GLIAC Tournament since the 1996-97 season, when the Cardinals posted a 73-67 victory over former GLIAC member Gannon University.
Wednesday night's game began with the lead changing hands five times, the fifth time being the last for the game. That was when the Cardinals used a three-pointer from Garrett Hall and a three-point play from Kellen Smith to take a 13-11 lead at the 12:45 mark.
SVSU held onto that lead and built it into a 13-point advantage heading into the halftime break, as the Cardinals headed into the locker room on a 9-0 run to make the score 39-26.
Damon Bozeman had 10 first half points for SV while Hall and C.J. Turnage each added eight.
The Cardinals built their largest lead of the contest of 15 points twice to begin the second half, the latter coming after a Hall jumper to make the score 43-28 with 17:11 remaining in the game.
Findlay used seven straight points to cut the Cardinal lead down to 58-54 at the 5:41 marker but back-to-back jumpers from Bozeman worked the lead back out to eight points for SVSU with the score 62-54.
The Oilers would begin fouling early, right around the point where there was 1:45 left to play.
The Cardinals, however, were solid from the foul line down the stretch by making 7-of-10 attempts to help close out for the seven-point victory, 69-62.
SVSU finished the game with a solid shooting effort, posting a 55.6 percentage (25-45). Findlay also shot decent, going 25-55 for a 45.5% mark. The Cardinals out-worked the Oilers on the glass, posting a 30-20 edge. SV also overcame 24 Findlay points that were a result of 18 Cardinal turnovers.
Hall posted a team-high 17 points in the contest and added three rebounds and two assists. He earned Meijer "Player of the Game" honors.
Turnage had 15 points, six rebounds, two assists and a block while Bozeman also dropped 15 points, grabbing five rebounds to add to the effort. Smith added 11 points, six assists and five boards as well.
Saginaw Valley will square-off with the host of the GLIAC Tournament Semifinals, the regular season champion Lake Superior State University Lakers. SVSU swept the regular season series versus LSSU. The squads will tip-off at 1:00 pm in Sault Ste. Marie.