UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball program got back in the win column with a 69-49 victory over the Parkside Rangers Thursday evening. The Cardinals had a major third quarter outscoring the Rangers 20-8 and held Parkside scoreless for seven and a half minutes to start the second half.
Victoria Stafford led the team in scoring with 14 points and added four rebounds. Aleshia Jones and Emma Dziezgowski both scored 12 points along with the Meijer player of the game, Lydia Meredith, scoring 11. Meredith also had a career-high eight rebounds behind Tyler Scheid's season-high of nine to lead the Cardinals. Jessica Massey tallied six points and a season-high five assists as SVSU had 14 helpers on the day. The team also shot a perfect 12-for-12 from the free throw line and out rebounded the Rangers 41-31.
Saginaw Valley won every quarter and started with Meredith making the first shot of the game. After a three for Parkside, a 6-0 run coming off buckets by Stafford, Scheid, and Meredith captured the lead against for the Cardinals. A 6-2 run coming off a Stafford layup and back-to-back Massey layups pushed the lead to 14-5 for SVSU. The Rangers finished the quarter with a 4-0 run as Saginaw Valley took a 14-9 lead into the second quarter.
After both teams traded two buckets each in the second, a 4-0 run for SVSU pushed the lead to eight before a 5-0 run coming off a Dziezgowski three and a Jones layup made it 27-17. Both teams traded shots again within a minute of play to make it 31-21. Saginaw Valley hit three free throws before a 7-0 run for Parkside closed out the first half and SVSU took a six-point lead into the half.
The third quarter was the strongest for Saginaw Valley as a 15-0 run extended the lead to 21 before Parkside made their first bucket of the quarter with 2:29 left on the clock. The Cardinals got their 15 points from a Meredith layup, a Scheid jumper, two free throws from Stafford, then two threes for Dziezgowski, and a bucket and-one by Saniaa Walker. After three points for Parkside, Lauren Sollom hit a three and a layup to tack on five more for SVSU. A 5-0 run for UWP ended the third quarter, but the damage was done and SVSU was up 18 heading into the final ten minutes.
Two free throws from both teams started the final quarter before a 4-0 run by Parkside was stopped by a 5-0 run for Saginaw Valley coming from a Jones layup and Dziezgowski's fourth and final three pointer. A 6-2 run for SVSU followed that up as Stafford hit two shots and Jones knocked down two from the charity stripe to make it 67-44 Cardinals. The Rangers would use free throws to cut into the lead with a 5-0 run before Makayla Mau hit two free throws in the final seconds of the game to push the score to the final of 69-49.
With the win, Saginaw Valley women's basketball improves to 4-9 and 1-2 in the GLIAC. The Cardinals welcome Purdue Northwest (6-7, 1-2) to O'Neill Arena on Saturday with an afternoon tip at 1:00 PM.
