UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team got a last-second jumper from junior forward Shelby Herrington to give the Lady Cardinals a 63-62 victory over the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) North Division-leading Michigan Tech University Huskies on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 25).
The victory improves the Cards to 8-7 overall and 6-6 in the GLIAC. Tech falls to 12-4 overall with a 10-2 mark in league play.
The Huskies led to open the game and SVSU got its first lead at the 16:15 mark, as sophomore guard Katelyn Carriere made a layup to give the team a 6-4 lead.
Tech would re-gain the advantage and the next SV lead wouldn't come until the 8:50 marker, when another Carriere layup gave the Cards a 17-16 edge.
After the contest was tied for the eighth time at 31-31 with 1:49 left in the half, the Huskies used baskets from Jillian Ritchie and Mackenzie Perttu to grab a 35-31 lead, which is where the score would stand as both teams entered the halftime break.
Along with those eight ties there were eight lead changes as well in the opening 20 minutes of play. Michigan Tech held an early 20-14 edge in points in the paint and its bench out-scored SVSU's by a margin of 12-2. The Huskies held a slim 21-20 advantage in rebounds for the first half.
Carriere led all first half scorers with 11 points. Junior forward Samantha Zirzow added nine points and four rebounds. Herrington worked hard on the glass, grabbing six first half boards.
The Cards opened the second half on a 9-0 run that was capped-off by a Zirzow bucket to take a 40-35 lead at the 15:31 mark.
SVSU held the lead all the way until there was 4:57 left to play. That's when Michigan Tech used a Danielle Blake layup to take a one point lead at 56-55.
Trailing by three, senior guard Kristen Greene drilled a three-pointer at the 3:02 marker to knot the score at 58 points-apiece. A Herrington basket and a free throw from senior guard Kayla Womack gave the home team a three point lead, 61-58, with just over a minute left.
Tech drew within a point after a layup and was able to take a 62-61 lead with six seconds left on the clock after another layup.
The six seconds were plenty enough for the Lady Cardinals, as an inbound pass went to Greene and she pushed it up the court, cutting through the Husky defense and finding an open Herrington, who squared-up just outside of the right block and put a jumper in off the glass, giving Saginaw Valley the 63-62 lead with just 0.6 seconds on the clock.
A desperation inbound pass from MTU touched a player and kicked out-of-bounds, and the clock expired and SV closed-out for its first victory over the Huskies since 2006 and its first home victory over the guests since the 1999 season.
Herrington was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" following the last-second shot, as well as her career-high tying eight rebounds, four points in the last two minutes and solid work on defense.
Zirzow had a game-high 16 points and eight rebounds. Carriere posted 17 points, three rebounds and three assists while Greene and Womack each netted a dozen points, with Greene adding eight boards and Womack five.
SVSU out-rebounded Tech for the game by a 42-35 margin.
Saginaw Valley returns to action on Thursday (Jan. 30), as it hosts Grand Valley State University in a 6:00 pm matchup with the Lakers.