KENOSHA, Wis. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team dropped an 83-75 decision on the road against Parkside on Saturday afternoon.
Junior guard Toodles Seal led the way for the Cardinals (12-8, 5-6 GLIAC) with his fourth-straight 20+ point scoring performance as he had a team-high 24 points in the losing effort.
SVSU hopped to a 7-3 lead in the opening three minutes of the first half as Freddie McIntosh hit a three between layups from Tre Garrett for a 7-0 run following Parkside's opening three-point jumper. The Rangers hit another shot from distance to cut the deficit to one point, 7-6, with 16:56 remaining in the opening session.
A few plays later, the score was knotted up at 11 with just under five minutes expired on the clock. Dylan West made a free throw that began a 4:25 scoring drought for Parkside and the Cardinals capitalized with 11 straight points to move to a 23-11 advantage with 10:32 left before halftime.
The SVSU lead would climb as high as 15 points (33-18), before the Rangers whittled things down to a 39-31 margin as the teams went into the locker rooms at the break.
The Cardinals shot an impressive 15-29 (51.7%) in the first half while their defense held Parkside to just 10-35 (28.6%) from the floor. SVSU was 5-9 (55.6%) from deep and 4-6 (66.7%) from the charity stripe. Kevonne Taylor made his presence known with two blocks in the first 20 minutes. McIntosh led the way with 11 points, while Seal scored 10, to help secure the edge at the break.
The second half started slow, with two free throws by the Rangers cutting the Saginaw lead to six points in the opening minute.
West made a bucket to extend the lead back to eight, but back-to-back shots by the Rangers continued to keep things close.
Garrett hit a layup through contact and completed the and-one to spark another 7-0 run for the Cardinals as the lead moved back to double-digits, 52-42, with 13:47 left in regulation.
Parkside continued to chip away at the lead with bursts of points until finally taking the lead, 58-57, at the 8:34 mark of the second half. Twelve-straight points from the Rangers would give them their first double-digit advantage at 70-59 with just 5:29 left to play.
Seal would make two buckets and a free throw to move the needle a touch closer at 74-64 with just over three minutes remaining. Ethan Hill responded with a layup followed by another basket by Seal and the score moved to a six-point gap with 2:01 on the clock.
A layup and two free throws from Parkside moved things back to a 10-point spread and the Cardinals couldn't bounce back before the final buzzer.
McIntosh finished the game with 14 points while Garrett tallied 10. Hill added nine points off the bench. Seal led the team in points with 24 and rebounds with eight. Garrett totaled a game-high three steals while Taylor led with three blocks.
The Cardinals will return to O'Neill Arena for their next contest when Davenport comes to Saginaw. The game with the Panthers is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m., EST, on Thursday, February 8.