FINDLAY, Ohio - The No. 7 seeded Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team fell by a 69-57 margin at the No. 2 seeded University of Findlay tonight (March 6) in the 2013 GLIAC Women's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals.
The Oilers held a slight advantage during the first ten minutes of action before the Lady Cardinals took their first lead of the game (12-11) on a pair of Kristen Greene (Brown City, Mich.) free throws at the 9:40 mark.
The next five minutes of action featured a back-and-forth battle as both teams exchanged small leads.
Saginaw Valley gained momentum during the final four minutes of the half and went into the locker room with the 31-24 lead after using an 11-2 run to end the half. SVSU fired 52.4 percent on 11-of-21 shooting, including 4-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Junior Kayla Womack (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / North) ended the half with back-to-back three-pointers and led SVSU with 11 points.
Findlay regained momentum in the second half as they went on a 14-0 run to take a 38-31 lead with 14:59 to play.
The Cardinals responded with a 9-2 run of their own to knot up the contest at 40-40 after a pair of free throws from senior Aysha Boston (Detroit, Mich. / Renaissance).
However, the Oilers took control of the contest with another run to go ahead 53-42 with 8:05 remaining.
Saginaw Valley was unable to overcome the late deficit and saw their season come to an end in the conference tournament by a final score of 69-57.
Defensively, the Cardinals shut down one of the top scorers in the GLIAC tonight as they held Findlay's Kayla Brown to just five points.
Meijer 'Player of the Game' Kayla Womack finished the night with a team-high 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting and five rebounds. Kristen Greene recorded 11 points, while Samantha Zirzow (Goodrich, Mich.) tallied eight points and six rebounds on the night.
This concludes an impressive 2012-13 SVSU women's basketball season in which the Cardinals clinched a GLIAC Tournament bid for the first time since the 2006-2007 season.
Saginaw Valley finished the regular season at the .500 mark or better overall for the first time since 2003-04 season and the first time in the conference since 1998-99. The campaign also featured a four-game winning streak, the first since Jan. 10, 2004 and the first four-game GLIAC streak since Feb. 8, 1999. SVSU's 13 wins on the season are the most since the 2003-2004 campaign and the 11 conference triumphs are the most since the 1998-99 season.
Congratulations to second year women's basketball head coach Jamie Pewinski, her staff and student-athletes on a great season!