CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball program headed to Kentucky to play Thomas More to start their three-game holiday trip on Friday. SVSU fell 65-54 after climbing back with a powerful third quarter.
Aleshia Jones led the team with 14 points as Emma Dziezgowski had nine and Megan McCalla had eight. McCalla and Jessica Massey led the team with four rebounds each while Jones led the game with six steals. The Cardinals led in points in the paint 24-20 and points off turnovers 25-17 as they accumulated 14 steals and forced 29 turnovers from the Saints. They were outrebounded 31-24, but hauled in 14 offensive boards to the Saints 10.
A 5-0 run for Thomas More started the game before Victoria Stafford hit two free throws to get the Cardinals on the board. The Saints kept pushing the pace in the first taking a 7-0 run to go up 12-2 early. SVSU got a bucket from McCalla and Lauren Sollom along with two free throws from McCalla to get back within six. After the teams traded buckets, Saginaw Valley got two free throws from Lydia Meredith and a bucket from Jones to cut the lead to 21-16 before the end of the first.
A scoring drought for the first two and a half minutes for both teams was broken in the second quarter with an Dziezgowski three pointer to cut the lead to two. The Saints answered with a three of their own before both teams went scoreless again for four minutes. A 5-0 run for Thomas More coming from three free throws extended their lead to double digits before a bucket from Jone and two free throws from Makayla Mau cut it to 31-23 heading into halftime.
The third quarter has been statistically the worst for Saginaw Valley, but they flipped the script outscoring the Saints 22-17. Thomas More started with a 5-0 run to lead by 13. Then a 9-2 run for SVSU with buckets coming from Jones, McCalla, and Massey along with an and-one conversion from Saniaa Walker cut the lead to 38-31. Then an 8-2 run cut it even closer as Tyler Scheid, Jones and Walker all got buckets and two free throws from McCalla. Down the stretch, Dziezgowski hit two threes, one with four seconds left, to cut the lead to one possession heading into the fourth quarter down 48-45.
Keeping with the trend of changing statistics, the Cardinals had been outscoring opponents in the fourth 163-127, however the fourth quarter swung the way of the Saints as they closed out with a 17-9 quarter to win 65-54. SVSU got a bucket and four free throws from Jones and a three pointer from Massey in the fourth to round out their scoring.
After the loss, Saginaw Valley women's basketball is 3-6 and has a quick turnaround. They head to Nashville tomorrow to play Trevecca Nazarene. Tip off is set for 4:00 PM EST for the middle of three games before Christmas.