WILBERFORCE, Ohio - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team defeated Central State University 70-62 tonight (Nov. 17) on the back end of their opening season road trip.

Senior Brett Beland (Menominee, Mich.) led the Cardinals in the first half, scoring nine of his 19 points in the opening half, as they entered the the locker room trailing the Marauders, 34-25.

Saginaw Valley fired 9-of-24 (37 percent) from the floor in the first half and 4-of-10 (40 percent) from behind the three point line.

The Cardinals opened the second half on an 18-9 run and finally tied the score on a jumper by Chris Webb (Saginaw, Mich./Arthur Hill HS) with 11:42 to play in the game.  Webb added ten points in the contest and now stands just six points shy of 1,000 for his career. 

Sophomore forward Matt Burgess (Capac, Mich.) pulled down an offensive rebound and put it back in to push the Saginaw Valley lead to 61-53 with just over three minutes left in regulation as SVSU took its biggest lead of the evening.

The Cardinals and senior Rob Clark (Saginaw, Mich.) closed the game out with free throws down the stretch as they would go on to the 70-62 victory.

Clark earned Meijer "Player of the Game" honors as he converted four free throws in the final :42 seconds of the game, finishing with a game-high 19 points, eight rebounds and four steals.

Kellen Smith (Covington, Kentucky / Scott HS) added nine points and seven assists on the evening as the Cardinals improve to 2-1 on the season.

SVSU fired 47 percent from the field on 23-of-48 shooting, including 17-for-23 (73 percent) from the free throw line.

Saginaw Valley will return to action on Thursday, Nov. 29 when they begin their GLIAC schedule at Ohio Dominican.