The Saginaw Valley State Univerity men’s basketball team faced Northern Michigan Univerity on Thursday, Feb. 23 in the O’Neil Arena. The game brought fans to the edge of their seats as the Cardinals came back from an eighteen-point deficit to tie the game only to suffer a 79-75 defeat.
In the opening ten minutes of play, the game was fairly static. The score sat at 13-12 in favor of the Wildcats. The second part of the first half was more dynamic with the Wildcats having a 9-0 run before a media timeout where they were leading 25-14. Northern Michigan peaked at 43- 25 to end the first half.
In the second half, the Cardinals tightened their defense to keep Norther Michigan from scoring. In the first five minutes of the second half, Saginaw Valley trimmed the Wildcats lead to six points with a 10-0 run.
Kevonne Taylor started the Cardinal run with a layup in the first 52 seconds of play. Tre Garrett added four free throws and a jumper. Toodles Seal made a bucket to add to the Cardinal run.
Northern retaliated with a 10-point advantage at the 11:45 mark of the game. The Cardinals were able to defend them though to trim away the Wildcats’s lead.
Maurice Anderson then came in with a three-point jumper cutting the lead down further and keeping the game close till the final buzzer.
NMU followed with nine points but was stopped by an 8-2 run for SVSU making the score 71-68 with 2:03 left in the game.
The end of the game was a flurry of action with McIntosh hitting a layup after Northern Michigan made a basket. The game had its first tie 73-73 with thirty-five seconds left on the clock.
The Wildcats however had a free throw opportunity and secured their win as the final buzzer went off.
With nineteen points Garrett was a lead scorer. He also had seven steals and six rebounds. Freddie McIntosh emerged as the second scorer with seventeen points and five rebounds. Toodles Seal also scored seventeen points and had ten rebounds. Anderson brought in twelve points as well.
In total, the Cardinals secured thirty-three rebounds and a field goal percentage of 49.1%.
Watch the SVSU Men’s Basketball team play again at 3:00 p.m. on March 2 against Wayne State for their last home game.
