The Basics
Score: Saginaw Valley 73, Northwood 68
Records: SVSU (16-6, 13-4 GLIAC) | NU (13-10, 9-8 GLIAC)
Location: James E. O'Neill Jr. Arena - University Center, Mich.
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The SVSU women's basketball team hosted GLIAC rival Northwood University in the O'Neill Arena on Saturday night in GLIAC North Division action. The Lady Cardinals held tough in a game that had nine ties and 23 lead changes, putting together an impressive 73-68 victory to post the first regular season sweep over Northwood since the 2006-07 season.
The victory also keeps Saginaw Valley in a tie atop the GLIAC North Division, as it holds the same record as Michigan Tech at 13-4 in the GLIAC.
The Cardinals traded the lead with the Timberwolves three times within the first three minutes. Saginaw Valley took a 9-5 lead after a three-pointer from Danielle Carriere at the 6:17 minute mark.
Northwood took the advantage back again, 12-9 after three consecutive buckets from Jordyn Nurenberg and a free throw from Maddy Seeley.
The Timberwolves led by a quarter-high of five points before Emily Wendling made back-to-back layups to trim the NU lead down to one point (16-15) before the period ended. That five point lead from Northwood would be the most they would lead by for the remainder of the contest.
The second period continued to be back and forth. Wendling sunk two free throws one minute into the frame to give the Cardinals the lead at 17-16. They traded the lead six more times before shots from Halee Nieman, Katelyn Carriere and Wendling gave Saginaw Valley their highest lead of the game yet, 35-28, with one minute left in the half. That's where the score remained as the Cardinals headed into halftime with the seven point advantage.
The Timberwolves came back at the start of the third period to tie it up 37-37 by the 8:00 minute mark.
Saginaw Valley took back the lead after three-pointers from both Danielle Carriere and Hannah Settingsgaard brought the score to 44-40 in SVSU's favor with 4:59 left on the clock for the third quarter.
Northwood tied it up again 44-44 at the 3:48 minute mark. The teams traded the lead more until Katelyn Carriere made a layup with 16 seconds left on the clock to put the Cardinals ahead before the period ended, 49-48.
The score remained tight in the fourth period, with neither team leading by more than one point until Danielle Carriere made a triple to put Saginaw Valley in the lead 56-54 with 5:25 left in the game. Two free throws from Nieman and another three-pointer from Katelyn Carriere extended the home team's lead to 61-54 at the 4:01 minute marker.
Katelyn drove the lead to a game high of nine points (67-58) with 2:21 left in the game, making six consecutive points after an additional three-point shot and a trio of free throws.
Northwood came back to cut the lead to one point, 69-68 with 24 seconds on the clock.
Alex Green and Wendling would be clutch down the stretch for SVSU, however, as they both went 2-for-2 from the foul line when Northwood was forced to foul. That helped the team seal the five point victory in front of a great home crowd, 73-68.
Inside the Boxscore
- Katelyn Carriere led the game with 22 points, going 8-of-13 from the floor. She also grabbed four rebounds and two steals. Carriere was a perfect 3-of-3 from downtown.
- Wendling posted 17 points, 14 rebounds and two steals for the Cardinals. The totals mark her fourth straight double-double for SVSU.
- Danielle Carriere added 13 points, matching her season-high while grabbing seven rebounds in her 28 minutes off the bench.
- Green posted seven points, shooting a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. She added a game-high assists in the contest as well.
- The Cardinals shot their best three-point percentage of the season at 63.6% (7-of-11) while holding the Timberwolves to 7-of-19 (36.8%) from beyond the arc.
- SV was 23-of-50 (46%) from the floor compared to Northwood's 37.3% (25-of-67).
- Saginaw Valley was stellar from the charity stripe once more, hitting on 20-of-24 tries for an 83.3 percentage.
- Both teams' bench scored 18 points while SV held a narrow edge on the glass, 39-37.
- The game was tied nine different times and featured 23 lead changes.
- SVSU continues its best start to a season since the 1998-99 season and the team now has the most league wins with 13 since that same season (14).
- Jordyn Nurenberg led NU in points (20), rebounds (15) and steals (5).
Meijer "Player of the Game"
Katelyn Carriere was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" after her game-high of 22 points, going 8-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. She added four rebounds and a pair of steals to the effort.
From Head Coach Jamie Pewinski...
Up Next for Saginaw Valley
Saginaw Valley hosts Northern Michigan University Thursday (Feb. 11) at 6:00 p.m. NMU is 10-13 overall and 9-8 in the conference and are coming of a 59-49 home victory over Ferris State on Saturday.
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