UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team was victorious in a home contest tonight (Jan. 30) against Lake Erie College by a final score of 67-58. 

SVSU jumped out to a 10-6 lead after six and a half minutes of play on a layup by Kayla Womack (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North HS).

The Cardinals stretched their lead to 19-14 after Meijer "Player of the Game" Samantha Zirzow (Goodrich, Mich. / Goodrich HS) made a jump shot with 9:18 left in the opening half.

Tough defense and good ball movement allowed the Lady Cardinals to enter the halftime intermission with a 38-31 lead.

SVSU's good ball movement led to an 8-3 edge in team assists and allowed the Cardinals to shoot 56 percent (10-for-18) from the floor while their defense held the Storm to 45 percent.

Saginaw Valley opened the second half with a 6-0 run, capped by an Emily Wendling (Flushing, Mich. / Flushing HS) layup, to go up 44-31 with 18:42 left in the contest.

However, the Storm answered back with a 10-2 run to cut SVSU's lead to just five points before a Samantha Zirzow layup gave the Cardinals a 48-41 cushion with nine minutes to play. Zirzow finished the contest with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, while also leading the team in rebounds (7).

Saginaw Valley and Lake Erie battled back and forth for the next seven minutes before back-to-back and-one layups by Emily Wending and Katelyn Carriere (London, Ontario / John Paul II) put the contest out of reach (65-51) with 1:43 remaining. The Cardinals would come away with the win, 67-58.

Saginaw Valley's aggressiveness on offense was key as it allowed them to outscore Lake Erie by a 27-5 margin at the free throw line as the Cardinals fired 87.1 percent (27-for-31) from the stripe. SVSU came away with the victory despite committing a season-high 22 turnovers, which led to a 30-12 points off turnover advantage for the Storm.

Freshman Katelyn Carriere scored a career-high 16 points on the night going 12-for-13 from the foul line for the Cardinals. Emily Wendling also chipped in with 14 points to help seal the victory for SVSU. 

The win elevates the Cardinals to 8-10 overall and 6-8 in GLIAC play, while Lake Erie drops to 3-14 on the year and 1-13 in conference play.

The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team will return to action this Saturday (Feb. 2) for a 7:00 PM home contest against Northwood University.