UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team cruised to a 100-50 win over Grace Christian on Friday night. The Cardinals (1-2) earned the first win of the 2024-25 season with the result.
Meijer Player of the Game Richmond Mawutor set a new career-high in points and rebounds as a Cardinal with his first double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds in the victory. Six SVSU players finished with double-digit points with Niko Newsome leading the way with 15 points. Toodles Seal totaled 13 while Freddie McIntosh and Bryson Huckeby recorded 11. Elijah Mattingly scored 10 points to finish off the six.
Seven Cardinals had five or more rebounds led by Mawutor's 10. Newsome hauled in seven. Maurice Anderson and Huckeby recorded six, and Nate Washburn and Seal grabbed five.
Triston Nichols was one point and one assist away from a double-double on the night. Nichols scored all nine points in the second half and finished 3-for-5 shooting with two steals and two blocks. Seal led the team with three blocks on the defensive side of the ball.
Mattingly and McIntosh hit three-point jumpers to begin the game with a 6-0 run in the opening minute of play. A 7-0 run was sparked by a Washburn layup and the lead was pushed to 13-3 with 17:41 left in the opening half. The Tigers trimmed the lead to seven with a 5-0 run and kept it there through the game's first media timeout. GCU would battle to keep the gap in the single digits until Newsome hit a layup at 10:57 that started a 10-0 run for the Cardinals pushed the margin to 36-18 and SVSU never looked back on the way to a 50-25 lead at the half.
Saginaw Valley State shot 50% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. McIntosh was the team's leading scorer at the break with nine points and the Cardinals recorded 32 rebounds in the first half alone.
The Second half was all SVSU as Huckeby hit a three at 14:52 that put the lead to 32 points (65-33). Nichols made a three-point jumper at 11:11 for the first 40-point advantage of 79-39. Washburn put the punctuation on the night with the game's final bucket with 67 ticks remaining to give the Cardinals the 50-point spread.
SVSU was 19-for-34 from the floor in the second half and hauled in another 22 rebounds for a final tally of 54 boards. The Cardinals scored 48 points in the paint and over half of the team's points came off the bench with 51.
UP NEXT: SVSU men's basketball remains at home to face Indianapolis on Sunday, November 17 at 3:00 p.m. (ET).
