UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team fell 81-69 to Wayne State on Thursday night. The Cardinals (9-14, 5-10 GLIAC) surrendered a 15-0 run in the final six minutes of play in the losing effort.
Meijer Player of the Game Toodles Seal led the way with a team-high 20 points. Seal added four rebounds and he shot 3-of-6 from three and a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Triston Nichols finished with 11 points. Richmond Mawutor and Bryson Huckeby led SVSU with nine rebounds each. Huckeby scored eight points while Mawutor finished with five points.
Niko Newsome scored the games first basket of the game and sparked an 8-0 run for the Cardinals in the first two minutes of the game. Newsome scored seven points on the night after shooting 3-of-5 from the floor. Maurice Anderson made a jumper from three to give Saginaw Valley its largest lead of the game (19-6) at the 12:41 mark of the opening half.
The Warriors (12-11, 8-7 GLIAC) used a 6-0 run to trim the lead to seven points with just under 11 and a half minutes left before the break. Seal responded with a step-back jumper that started a 6-0 run for the Cardinals and the margin grew to 12 at the 8:09 mark.
Seal hit a shot from near mid-court in the closing seconds to give SVSU the 41-32 advantage as the teams entered the locker room at the half.
Seal made all three of his attempts from three-point range and scored 16 of his 20 points in the first 20 minute of play.
Wayne State began the second half by scoring six straight points to come within three points of knotting things up. A layup by the Warriors with 14:15 on the clock tied things at 48 before Wayne State took a 53-52 lead.
The lead would change hands three more times, with Wayne State making a driving layup to tie the score at 66 with 6:45 left in regulation. This set up the 15-0 run that proved to be the difference in the game.
UP NEXT: The Cardinals hit the road to play GLIAC newcomer Roosevelt on Saturday, February 15 with a 4:00 p.m. (ET) tip-off scheduled against the Lakers.
