MIDLAND – The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team opened its 2014-15 regular season on the road at the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge, hosted by Northwood University. The short-handed Lady Cardinals fell to the #9 nationally-ranked Lewis Flyers on Friday (11/14) by a final score of 85-60.
SVSU jumped out to a quick 4-3 lead at the 18:21 mark after back-to-back layups by Alex Green and Emily Wendling. The Flyers then went on a 10-0 run to take a 13-4 lead at the 16:21 mark.
The Cardinals answered the Lewis run with a 9-0 run of their own, capped by a Briana Graham layup to tie the game 13-13 at the 13:04 marker of the first half.
Lewis would take the lead 15-13 on a made layup and held a lead for the rest of the first half. SVSU cut the deficit down to one following an Abby Schlicher three-pointer at the 9:30 mark to make the score 22-21 but could not get any closer.
A three-pointer by freshman Hailey Krewald stopped the 7-0 Flyer run to cut the Lewis advantage down to 29-24. A pair of free throws by senior Samantha Zirzow and a triple by Jessica Alexander with four seconds left in the half would round-out the scoring for the Lady Cards in the first half.
The teams headed to the halftime break with Saginaw Valley down eight points, 37-29.
Krewald and senior Shelby Herrington led the Cardinals in the first half with six points-apiece. SVSU shot 44.4 percent (4-9) from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes, with Krewald draining a pair of triples.
The Flyers pushed their lead out to 13 points to start the second half, but back-to-back three balls by Krewald would cut the score down to 44-37 with 16:18 remaining in the game.
That is as close as SV would get the rest of the way, as the Flyers went on an 18-0 run over the next three and a half minutes to push their lead up to 17 points.
Wendling went on to score the next 10 points for SVSU. She finished the game with 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds in her first game back since the 2012-13 season.
Krewald netted her fifth and final three pointer of the night with 3:31 remaining in the contest. The freshman scored a team-high 16 points in her first collegiate game, with 10 of those coming in the second half. She was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" for her performance.
The Cardinals out-scored the Flyers 10-5 in the final 3:31 minutes of play but the game would conclude with Lewis defeating SVSU, 85-60.
Zirzow and Herrington each chipped in with seven points and five rebounds. Alexander added four points and a team-high four assists in her first collegiate basketball game.
Saginaw Valley looks to rebound on Saturday (11/15), as it takes on the Saint Joseph's Pumas in a 5:00 pm match-up to conclude the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge. The Pumas were defeated by host Northwood 83-67 on Friday night in the game that was played after SVSU and Lewis.