CANTON, Ohio – The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team returned to the court on Friday (Dec. 2) night for a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) matchup against the Malone University Pioneers. The Pioneers held the lead for the majority of the night and held on for a 60-54 victory over the Cardinals at Osborne Hall.
Freshmen Jessica Alexander opened the scoring by knocking down a jump shot on the opening possession to give the Lady Cardinals an early 2-0 lead, but Malone went on to score the next 11 points to take an 11-2 lead at the 16:23 mark. The run was stopped by a Danielle Carriere triple to make the score 11-5 with 15:44 remaining in the half.
Carriere knocked down her second three-pointer of the half to cut the Pioneer lead to six (14-8) with just under 14 minutes to play. SVSU used a pair of jumpers by seniors Shelby Herrington and Samantha Zirzow to cut the deficit to four points (18-14) at the 11:04 marker.
Malone used a 9-3 run to take a 30-21 advantage and matched its largest lead of the first half at nine points with just under three minutes to play in the opening frame. A Zirzow layup and Abby Schlicher jump shot on back-to-back possessions made the score 30-25 with 1:53 remaining in the half. The Pioneers knocked down a jumper of their own to round out the scoring in the first half and take a 32-25 lead heading into the locker room.
Carriere led the way for the Lady Cardinals, scoring seven points while knocking down a pair of triples. The junior grabbed three rebounds and had two steals in the opening half. Zirzow chipped-in with six points of her own on 3-of-5 shooting with a pair of boards. SVSU shot 42.3 percent (11-for-26) compared to 39.3 percent (11-for-28) for Malone, but the Pioneers held a seven point advantage after 20 minutes of play.
Zirzow scored the first four points of the second half to pull the Cards to within three at 32-29 at the 17:40 mark. The Pioneers answered with an 8-1 run to take their largest lead of the game (40-30) with 14:44 remaining in the second stanza.
SV cut into the Malone lead, using a pair of Alexander jumpers to make the score 44-39 with just under 11 minutes to play in the game. The freshman made good on a layup following an offensive rebound by junior Alex Green to pull the Lady Cards even closer at 45-41 at the 9:49 marker.
Green knocked down a triple of her own to cut the Pioneer lead down to two points (48-46) with seven minutes to play in the contest.
Carriere hit a pair of free throws to make the score 55-51 with 3:16 on the clock. The guard would come up clutch about two minutes later as she dialed in from long distance to make it a one possession game (57-54) with less than a minute and a half showing on the game clock.
The Lady Cardinals could not get any closer and were unable to score the rest of the contest as the Pioneers made three of four free throws in the final 20 seconds to close out the six point victory.
Zirzow scored a game-high 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting while earning her third consecutive Meijer "Player of the Game" accolades. The senior pulled in five rebounds in the contest as well.
Carriere was the only other Cardinal to score in double-figures as she recorded 12 points, knocking down three triples. She had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals while playing a team-high 35 minutes. Alexander netted eight points while sophomore Emily Wendling chipped in with seven points, five rebounds, and four assists. Senior Briana Graham had seven steals in the contest.
The Lady Cardinals held a better shooting percentage from the field but had 17 turnovers which led to 20 points for the Pioneers. The home team held the advantage in bench points (29-10) and second chance points (13-9).
Saginaw Valley (5-6, 0-5 GLIAC) looks to bounce back on Sunday (Dec. 4) afternoon against Walsh University (8-3, 2-3 GLIAC) in another road GLIAC contest. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 pm at Alumni Hall in North Canton, Ohio. The Lady Cardinals and Cavaliers have split the first two meetings in the all-time series, with SVSU defeating Walsh in the teams' only meeting last season by a final score of 80-64 at O'Neill Arena.