UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team scored 53 points in the second half to pull away from Purdue Northwest in an 81-68 decision to earn the first win of 2025. The Cardinals (6-7, 2-3 GLIAC) shot an impressive 55.2% from the floor and 44.4% from three in the game to earn the win over the Pride (3-10, 0-5 GLIAC).
Meijer Player of the Game Bryson Huckeby had a career night with 18 points and six rebounds to help lead SVSU to the win. Freddie McIntosh had a game-high 20 points on 4-for-8 shooting from deep. Maurice Anderson compiled 19 points and Niko Newsome was one point from tying his career-high with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting. Richmond Mawutor led the Cardinals on the boards with nine rebounds.
"Credit to our leadership with Bryson and Freddie. They figured it out," said head coach Randy Baruth. "They decided on who they wanted on the floor to play with them as a team. They did that, and it was really a lot of fun to be a part of."
Anderson scored Saginaw Valley State's first five points as the Cardinals hopped to a quick 8-3 lead in the opening five minutes of play. An 8-0 run later in the first half gave the Pride an 11-point advantage (32-21) with 5:50 left in the opening half. Another 5-0 run in the closing two minutes to build the largest lead of the game of 12 points, which remained until the half where the Pride had a 40-28 lead as the teams entered the locker room.
SVSU chipped away at the deficit in the second half before McIntosh made a three-point jumper to spark an 8-0 run that was capped by five-straight points from Huckeby and gave the Cardinals a 48-46 edge. A few possessions later, Mawutor hit a layup that started a game-winning 15-0 run that spanned 4:08 of game time and resulted in a 65-51 lead for Saginaw Valley.
McIntosh struck again with 3:48 left with a three-point jumper that gave the Cardinals their biggest lead of the game (73-58) and SVSU never looked back on the way to the victory.
McIntosh bounced back in a big way in the second half with 18 points. Huckeby also matched pace with all but three of his points coming in the final 20 minutes of play.
UP NEXT: The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team will look to earn another win on Saturday, January 11 when Parkside comes to O'Neill Arena. The Cardinals will tip things off with the Rangers at 3:00 p.m. (ET) following the women's game at 1:00 p.m.
