Women's Basketball Falls To #22 Grand Valley State, 66-61

#20 Kristen Greene
#20 Kristen Greene

UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team fell at home to the #22-ranked Grand Valley State University Lakers by a score of 66-61 on Thursday (2/3) in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) match-up.

The Lady Cardinals took a quick lead on a three-pointer by Aysha Boston 13 seconds into the contest and would extend the lead to five points after a pair of free throws by sophomore Cheritee Green (Wyoming Park, Mich.) made the score 7-2 in SVSU's favor.  The score would go back-and-forth until the 10:47 mark, when the Lakers took a two point lead after a layup by Alex Stelfox, making the score 17-15.  SVSU would tie the score three times between there and the 2:23 mark, when the score was knotted for the seventh time at 28 points-apiece.  A pair of free throws and a layup by freshman Kayla Womack (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich./North HS) gave SVSU a 32-28 advantage with 1:09 remaining in the half.  A pair of free throws, however, by Grand Valley's Lauren Stodola with 53 seconds left cut the Cardinal lead to 32-30, which is where the score would stand heading into the locker room.

Freshman Kristen Greene (Brown City, Mich.) led the way offensively in the first half, scoring 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, including 3-of-4 from beyond the three-point line.  Cheritee Green added six points and led all rebounders with seven in the opening 20 minutes.

The Cardinals held a seven point lead at the 16:10 mark in the second half after a Kristen Greene jumper, making the score 41-34.  A layup by GVSU's Brittany Taylor at the 8:56 mark knotted the score at 52-52.  SVSU would get the lead thanks to a layup by sophomore Grace Herzog (Linden, Mich./Powers Catholic HS) with 3:28 remaining, giving the Cards a 59-58 advantage.  The Lakers re-gained the lead with 1:19 left in the half at 62-61 and would use free throws and rebounding to close-out down the stretch for the five point victory, 66-61.

Kristen Geene earned Meijer "Player of the Game" honors after finishing with a game-high 18 points.  Sophomore Jasmine Woods (Lansing, Mich./Holt HS) added nine points while Cheritee Green, sophomore Aysha Boston (Detroit, Mich./Renaissance HS) and Herzog all had six points, with Green grabbing a game-high eight rebounds.

The loss drops the Cardinals to 6-13 overall and 4-9 in the GLIAC while the Lakers improve to 16-4 overall and 9-4 in league play.  SVSU will be back in action on Saturday, February 5th, when it travels to Ferris State University for a 3:00 pm GLIAC contest.  Saginaw Valley won the first match-up between the two teams this year, a 70-67 victory on January 8th in University Center.