COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team defeated Ohio Dominican University 67-57 tonight (Nov. 29) in their 2012 GLIAC opener. SVSU improves to 2-2 on the year and 1-0 in the conference, while ODU falls to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the GLIAC.

The opening minutes of the contest featured a series of fast-paced, up-and-down the court action which was capped off by a Briana Graham (Detroit, Mich. / Iona College) layup to put SVSU ahead 9-7 going into the first media timeout at 14:29.

After ODU gained the lead, Katelyn Carriere (London, Ontario / John Paul II) brought the Cardinals within four (24-20) after she drew a foul, made the layup and converted on the ensuing free throw at the 5:53 mark of the first half. 

The Panthers proceeded to push their lead to nine before Saginaw Valley closed out the half with a 7-2 run over the final two minutes to cut the deficit to 34-30 at halftime. SVSU held a 22-18 edge on the glass over ODU after 20 minutes of action.

Junior guard Kristen Greene (Brown City, Mich.) knocked down a jump shot on the opening possession of the second half to trim the ODU lead to 34-32. However, the Cardinals would struggle to find the bottom of the net over the next five minutes as Ohio Dominican took a 38-34 advantage.

SVSU took their first edge since 9-7 early in the first half on a Kristen Greene pull up jumper from the right side after a pass from Emily Wendling (Flushing, Mich.) with nine minutes remaining.

Saginaw Valley pushed their lead to 59-50 at the 5:25 mark after back-to-back buckets by Kayla Womack (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North HS) followed by a Graham drop step move in the paint for the score.

The Cardinals defense stepped up their aggressiveness down the stretch and forced the Panthers into 12 turnovers and just 23 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes. SVSU picked up a 67-57 victory after the stellar second half performance.

Offensively, Saginaw Valley went to the foul line 26 times compared to 18 for Ohio Dominican and disqualified three Panthers with five fouls. The Cardinals also pulled down 12 offensive rebounds on the evening.

Emily Wendling earned Meijer 'Player of the Game' recognition as she posted her first career double-double with 20 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. Wendling went 7-for-12 from the field and 6-of-9 from the line.

Greene posted a season-high 16 points on 7-of-19 shooting, while Womack and Samantha Zirzow (Goodrich, Mich.) added eight points each.

The victory was keyed by a 15-3 run for SVSU midway through the second half as outscored ODU 37-23 in the final period for the conference opening night win. SVSU also dominated the points in the paint battle by a 42-18 margin.

The Cardinals will return to action on Saturday (Dec. 1) when they head over to Tiffin to battle the Dragons at 3:00 PM.