UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball program fell 62-55 to Purdue Northwest Saturday afternoon. This was the eighth meeting between these teams with seven of those games ending within single digits.
Victoria Stafford led the Cardinals with 14 points with Emma Dziezgowski and the Meijer player of the game, Tyler Scheid, also supplying offense scoring 13 and 12 points. Scheid shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. Aleshia Jones also added eight as Jessica Massey and Lydia Meredith rounded out the scoring with four each. Jones, Meredith, and Scheid all had five rebounds as the team led in rebounding 29-24 and had 10 offensive boards to the Pride's two. SVSU also had their best shooting day from behind the arc shooting 43.8% hitting seven of their 16 shots.
The Pride hit the first shot of the game before Staford made back-to-back jumpers to give the Cardinals a 4-2 lead. Both teams hit three pointers with Jones draining her shot before a jumper for PNW tied it at 7-7. Scheid answered with a three of her own and neither team made a shot from the floor to finish the last four minutes of the first quarter. Purdue Northwest tallied a free throw to cut it to 10-8 before the buzzer.
Out of the quarter break, PNW hit a layup to tie the game before a 4-0 run coming from Meredith and Scheid buckets made it 14-10 SVSU. An 8-3 run for the Pride snagged the lead back before Scheid ended the run with another three making it 20-18 Cardinals. Stafford followed up with another bucket before two free throws by Purdue Northwest kept the lead at two for Saginaw Valley heading into halftime.
A 5-2 run started the second half for Purdue Northwest as they took a one-point lead. The Cardinals and the Pride traded two buckets each to keep the slim advantage for PNW before a free throw made it a two-point lead. A 6-3 swing for SVSU coming off two threes by Dziezgowski put them ahead 34-33. Another point from the charity stripe for the Pride tied it before Massey hit three free throws. Two threes late in the third for PNW took the lead by one as Dziezgowski hit a jumper for her eighth point of the quarter. Stafford got a layup late for the 41-40 lead before a buzzer beater for PNW took back the lead heading into the final frame.
PNW started with a 5-0 to give them their largest lead of the game. Dziezgowski drained another three before making a layup along with Scheid to push the score to 49-48 Purdue Northwest. Both teams took 4-0 runs as the game moved to 53-52 and the Pride called a timeout. PNW took advantage of a 7-2 run out of the timeout to extend their lead late in the game. A Massey free throw made it 59-55, but the Pride hit three free throws down the stretch to secure the 62-55 win.
After the loss, Saginaw Valley women's basketball sits at 4-10 and 1-3 in GLIAC play. The Cardinals hit the road again as they head to #1 ranked Grand Valley State University on Thursday, January 11. Tip-off is set for 6:00 PM.