UNIVERSITY CENTER -- The SVSU Men's Basketball team fought-off a second half charge from the Northern Michigan University Wildcats on Thursday (Jan. 30) night, claiming a 68-63 victory in GLIAC play at O'Neill Arena.
Myles Belyeu led the way for Saginaw Valley, collecting his seventh double-double of the season with 25 points and a career-best matching 13 rebounds.
SVSU shook-off a slow start and had a solid first half, building a 21-point lead that came with 1:23 to play when Fred John Jr. Made a layup for the Cardinals to make the score 42-21. A three-point play from Northern would cut into that a little but Saginaw Valley carried an 18-point edge into the halftime break, 42-24.
Belyeu had 11 points and nine rebounds in the first half, adding three assists and a steal.
Northern Michigan worked its way back and knotted the score at 45-45 with 10:37 to go in the game. The score remained tight from there, with the Cards holding a lead the majority of the time. The Wildcats would get a three-point play from Sam Taylor with 1:15 left to trim the SV lead to 64-61. A Malik Ellison layup with 24 ticks to play put the lead at five (66-61). NMU got a pair of free throws with 15 seconds to play, which put the score at 66-63.
Forced to foul and trailing by three points, Ellison made one free throw to put the lead at 67-73 and the 'Cats missed a triple with five seconds remaining. Belyeu hit another freebie with two seconds left to put the score at 68-63, which is where the final count would stand.
Inside the Boxscore
- Belyeu had a game-high 25 points and matched his career-high with 13 boards. He was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" and added three assists and a steal.
- Ellison finished with 18 points, two rebounds, an assist and block.
- Darnell Hoskins Jr. had nine points and John added six points with three rebounds.
- Delano Smith added six boards and Innocent Nwoko added seven.
- The Cardinals had 15 offensive rebounds, which led to 21 second chance points in the contest.
Postgame Interview - Randy Baruth
Up Next...
Saginaw Valley hosts Michigan Tech University on Saturday (Feb. 1) in another league contest. Tip-off for that game will be at 3:00 p.m. at O'Neill Arena.
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