MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball program wrapped up their first conference road trip of the season with a 65-41 loss to Northern Michigan. The middle two quarters tripped up the Cardinals after getting a lead early in the first.
The Cardinals were led by Aleshia Jones with nine points and two rebounds. Jessica Massey had four rebounds, three of them offensive and Lauren Sollom came down with a team leading seven boards.
A 5-0 run for Northern Michigan kicked off the first before an 11-0 run helped Saginaw Valley to their first lead getting three pointers from Emma Riley, Massey, Emma Dziezgowski, and a bucket from Tyler Scheid. Two free throws for the Wildcats ended the quarter to make it 11-7.
After a Jones jumper extended the Cardinal lead to six before a 13-0 lead for the Wildcats swung it to 20-13. A Sollom three stopped the run and a Jones three cut the lead to 24-19 before a three pointer for Northern Michigan and a Lydia Meredith jumper ended the half with a 27-21 Wildcat lead.
The third quarter was the toughest stretch for the Cardinals as a 15-0 run for Northern Michigan over a six-minute span pushed it to 42-23 Wildcats. The teams traded blows until the Wildcats ended on a 5-0 run to head into the fourth quarter up 53-29.
The teams split the fourth both scoring 12 points as the Cardinals got a bucket from Jones, a three pointer and two free throws from Makayla Mau, a free throw from Megan McCalla, and four points from the charity stripe from Maggie Keinsley.
After the loss, the Cardinals are 3-5 overall and 0-2 in conference play. Now, SVSU gets set for the remaining four non-conference games to end the calendar year. First, they will head to Kentucky on Friday, December 15 to play Thomas More. Afterwards, they head to Tennessee to play Trevecca Nazarene on Saturday, December 16 and Carson-Newman on Tuesday, December 19 before ending non-conference play against Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti on December 29. Tip-off of the Thomas More game is set for 3:00 PM.