Cardinal Comeback Falls Short as Huskies Claim Victory in League Opener

Cardinal Comeback Falls Short as Huskies Claim Victory in League Opener

HOUGHTON -- The Cardinal men opened league play for the 2017-18 season on Thursday (Nov. 30) evening with a game against Michigan Tech University. Despite a solid comeback effort in the second half where Saginaw Valley erased a 17-point deficit and trailed by only four, the Huskies would end up closing out for an eight-point victory of 75-67.

The Huskies jumped out to the quick lead for the game and would hold that edge until the 13:15 marker of the first half when Sebastiano Lamonato made good on a three-point play to knot the score at 15-15. He would make another layup at the 12:23 marker, giving the visitors their first lead of the game at 17-15. He added another with 11:35 to play to make it 19-17 after a Husky bucket tied it at 17-all, making it a stretch of seven straight points for him.

After a brief 22-21 lead after SVSU's Jake Daniels connected on a triple, Michigan Tech got the lead back and continued on to take a four-point lead into the halftime break, 39-35. 

The Huskies pushed the lead out to double figures with the score 50-39 as 16:23 showed on the clock. They would lead by as many as 17 points, holding a 62-45 lead with 13:03 left to play in the game.

A Jeremy Pung layup for Saginaw Valley with 5:52 left cut the deficit to just eight points (63-55). The Cards would continue to fight and cut it to just four points at 71-67, but just 36 seconds were left on the clock after Mike Wells Jr. made a pair of free throws. 

With the Cardinals unable to connect on any of their field goal attempts from there, Tech made four of their six free throw tries to claim the 75-67 win as time expired.  

Inside the Boxscore

  • Lamonato scored a career-high 16 points in the contest, adding a team-high six rebounds. He earned Meijer "Player of the Game" honors after his performance.
  • Daniels added 11 points with five rebounds for the Cardinals.
  • Malik garner netted 11 points as well, adding five boards and a team-high five assists as well. 
  • Pung matched a career-high with nine points, grabbing five boards.
  • Tech shot 54.0% (27-50) from the floor while SVSU was just 37.3% (22-59).
  • Saginaw Valley had 39 boards in comparison to Michigan Tech's 30.
  • The Huskies had 36 points in the paint while the Cards had 28.
  • The Cardinal bench posted a 30-14 advantage in points.

Up Next...

The Cardinals continue on to play at Northern Michigan University Saturday (Dec. 2) in another league contest. Tip-off is slated for an 11:00 a.m. start against the Wildcats from the Berry Events Center.

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