UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team ended a four-game losing streak on Thursday night (Jan. 23) with a 71-68 victory over the visiting Northern Michigan University Wildcats in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) North Division matchup.

The Lady Cardinals opened the game on an 8-0 run, with six of those points coming from junior forward Samantha Zirzow.  SVSU would use another 8-0 stretch after leading 14-5 to extend its lead to 17 points after a Shelby Herrington jumper to make the score 22-5 with 12:32 left to play in the half.

Another Zirzow layup at the 6:26 mark gave Saginaw Valley its largest lead of the game, pushing the score to 29-9.

The Wildcats slowly cut into the SV lead and used a three point play with 32 seconds left to cut the deficit to 12 points heading into the halftime break, 37-25.

SVSU scored 12 points off of seven NMU turnovers and out-rebounded the Wildcats by a 22-13 margin in the opening 20 minutes of play.  The Lady Cards shot 45.2% from the floor in the first compared to 35.7% for Northern.

Zirzow led all first half scorers with 14 points and added five rebounds.  Senior guard Kayla Womack added eight points and Herrington had six boards in the first half of action.

Northern scored six of the first eight points in the second half to cut the Cardinal lead to single digits at eight points with the score 39-31 at the 17:44 marker.

Saginaw Valley held the advantage all the way until there was just 3:40 left in the game, when a layup from the Wildcats' Annie Rubendunst gave the visitors their first lead of the game at 59-58.

The Cards responded and grabbed the lead back, but the 'Cats hit three of their three point attempts in a row and held a 68-65 lead with just over a minute left to play.

A pair of Womack freebies cut the deficit to 68-67 and a Northern turnover gave SV the ball back with 37 seconds left.  Sophomore guard Katelyn Carriere was then able to split the defense and give Saginaw the lead after a layup.  A foul gave her the opportunity to convert a three point play.

She missed the free throw, but senior guard Kristen Greene grabbed the rebound on a loose ball and was able to get a timeout before a held ball could be called, keeping the ball in the Cardinals' possession with 16 seconds remaining.

With the shot clock off, the 'Cats fouled on the in-bound pass, which opened the door for Womack at the foul line.  She drained both double-bonus attempts to make the lead 71-68 with 14 seconds left.

Northern was able to get off a last-second three pointer, but Sarah Miller's attempt fell no good and Saginaw Valley escaped with the three point victory, 71-68.

It was a very clean second half, as both teams combined for just five turnovers in the final 20 minutes.  Saginaw had a season-low seven turnovers, just one in the second half. 

Womack added 12 second half points to finish with a game-high 20, including going 8-for-8 from the charity stripe.

Zirzow had 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Herrington was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" after posting 12 points and a team-high eight boards.

SVSU finished with a 37-32 final edge on the glass and was a solid 18-of-22 from the free throw line.

The Lady Cardinals improve to 7-7 overall for the 2013-14 season and 5-6 in GLIAC play.  The 'Cats fall to 11-4 overall and 8-3 in league play.

Saginaw Valley is back in action on Saturday (Jan. 25), as it hosts Michigan Tech University (12-3, 10-1 GLIAC) in a 1:00 pm matchup.