Women’s basketball splits weekend home games

Sophomore point guard Maddie Maloney brings the ball down the floor against Michigan Tech. Vanguard Photo | Brandon Hull

The women’s basketball team dropped its first weekend game to Northern Michigan before redeeming themselves against Michigan Tech on Saturday.

The games bring the Cardinals to an overall record of 9-12, with a 5-8 GLIAC record.

In Thursday’s game against Northern, the Cardinals showed hope early, as the team outscored Northern Michigan 26-25 in the first half.

Freshman guard Kaitlyn Zarycki, led the Cardinals with eight points in the first half.

The Cardinals’ biggest weakness in the half came from deep, scoring on only two of 16 attempts from beyond the three point arch.

The Cardinals struggled to get the ball moving in the third quarter, as the team scored only 13 points.

This was countered by the Wildcat’s best quarter of play, scoring 25 points in the third quarter alone.

The 11 point lead going into the final quarter of the game proved to be too much of a challenge for the Cardinals to overcome, as the team dropped the game to the visiting Wildcats, 71-66.

After a day of rest, the Cardinals were back in the O’Neill Arena on Saturday to host the Michigan Tech Huskies.

Improving from their shooting two days prior, the Cardinals opened the game with an above .500 shooting percentage in the first two quarters.

Led by guards Maddie Maloney and Maddie Barrie with a combined 17 points in the first half, the Cardinals entered the second half with a tie, 26-26.

The Cardinals proved to be a second half team, as both Zarycki and Barrie had double-digit scoring in the half, with 21 and 10 points, respectively.

The Cardinals’ success late in the game also came from a stellar defense that was able to hold the Huskies to just 13 points in the third quarter.

Led by Zarycki’s 25 points in the game, the Cardinals defeated the Huskies 85-77, while also scoring a season high in points.

“We had a nice team win tonight,” sophomore Barrie said. “We’ve lost a couple close ones, so it was nice to get a win under our belt.”

The Cardinals are off to a slow start so far this season, as they are currently ranked fourth in the GLIAC South Division and seventh overall in the GLIAC.

The Cardinals have been led in scoring this season by Zarycki and Barrie, who are averaging 13.9 and 10.9 points per game, respectively.

SVSU has seven games left in their season, starting with road games against Ferris State and Lake Superior State this week continuing GLIAC play.

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