UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball program got back in the win column Thursday afternoon defeating the Davenport Panthers 59-39. The Cardinals (7-15, 4-8 GLIAC) claimed their 11th straight win over Davenport (3-18, 1-10 GLIAC).
The Cardinals were led by the Meijer Player of the Game, Victoria Stafford, with 13 points and a career-high nine rebounds. Aleshia Jones also had 13 points along with four assists. Jessica Massey had a season-high four steals along with five rebounds and four assists. Lydia Meredith also had four steals along with seven rebounds and eight points for her well rounding performance.
SVSU never trailed in the game as they started with a 14-1 run before DU scored their first field goal seven minutes into the game. The run was aided by three Stafford buckets and two Jones threes. Saginaw Valley closed out the first quarter with a Massey bucket and-one conversion and held a 17-5 lead heading into the second.
The script flipped for the next 10 minutes as Davenport won the second quarter 10-5. A four-minute scoreless stretch lead to a 6-1 Panthers run to end the first half. The Cardinals headed into the locker room up 22-15.
Saginaw Valley bounced back in the third with their most points in a quarter. A 10-1 run including a Lauren Sollom three and a bucket from Emma Dziezgowski. A 9-3 run for SVSU followed getting two buckets from Tyler Scheid along with a Stafford three. Two points each ended the quarter with the Cardinals ahead 43-25.
The final quarter was the closest of the game with SVSU narrowly leading 16-14. Massey made a free throw and a three to counter the four free throws by Davenport. Meredith had two from the charity stripe and a layup to stretch the lead to 20 just over half way through the quarter. Megan McCalla countered Panther buckets with four free throws and a layup to make it 59-36 before a Davenport three ended the scoring with the 20-point victory for SVSU.
The Cardinals stay in playoff position in the eighth spot of the GLIAC. They prepare to host No. 9 Grand Valley State University for Battle of the Valley on Saturday, February 10. Tip-off is set for 1:00 PM EST from O'Neill Arena.
