UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team earned a big 68-61 win over Hillsdale on Tuesday afternoon. The Cardinals (7-3) snapped a four-game losing skid to the Chargers (7-3), who are ranked second in the Midwest Region of the D2CSC Media Poll this week.
Meijer Player of the Game, Dylan West was the top performer for SVSU as he finished with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double on the afternoon. That is West's second double-double this season, both led to Cardinal victories over former Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) opponents.
Freddie McIntosh got the scoring started for SVSU with a jumper from inside the paint for a 2-0 lead. McIntosh finished with 24 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals. The junior guard made six of his seven free throw attempts as well. Toodles Seal added 10 points to the winning effort as well. Seal finished the day a perfect, 2-2 at the charity stripe, and hauled in two rebounds as well.
The Cardinals led for 29 minutes and 49 seconds of play in a game that was tightly contested throughout, with only four lead changes and two ties. Neither team ever led by double-digit points. The Chargers lead by seven points (their largest lead) at the 12:33 mark of the first half with a three-point bucket. West scored six-straight points for Saginaw Valley to recapture the lead, 22-21, with 8:30 remaining until the half.
McIntosh added five straight points around the five-minute mark to increase the lead to four points (27-23). Hillsdale would charge back to cut the lead to one with 4:17 on the clock, but another 5-0 run started and finished by McIntosh, put the Cardinals ahead by six. The margin would remain in that area for the remaining 2:11 of the first with SVSU leading 36-30 as the teams entered the locker room.
The score stayed within two possessions throughout the opening third of the second half. Curtis Jackson hit a jumper from deep to give SVSU its largest lead of the game (48-40) with 11:35 left in regulation. Jackson finished with eight points and three assists on his stat line.
A 7-0 run by Hillsdale knotted things up at 54 with 3:47 left to play. This was the final tie of the game. McIntosh scored a layup that ignited a 6-0 run, and the Cardinals never looked back on the way to the win.
The Cardinal men's hoops team will get a bit of a break for the Christmas holiday before hosting Canadian U Sports program McMaster College on Friday, December 29 for a 3:00 p.m. tip. The Cardinals and Marauders game will be the final game of the 2023 calendar year.
