Cardinals earn 76-61 win on Senior Night
The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team closed-out the 2010-11 regular season with a 76-61 home victory over Northern Michigan University on Saturday night (2/26) in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) match-up. The victory moves the Cardinals to an even 13-13 overall on the season and 9-10 in GLIAC play while the Wildcats fall to 9-17 overall and 4-15 in league play.
UNIVERSITY CENTER -- The Wildcats jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the contest and led by a score of 15-9 after a DeAndre Taylor layup. SVSU would follow with a run of its own, pouring-in 15 straight points to claim a 24-15 advantage at the 3:04 mark in the first half. The Cardinals' run was capped off by a triple by senior Keithan Jackson (Grand Rapids, Mich./Godwin Heights HS). The teams would exchange buckets the rest of the frame, with the Cardinals carrying a 28-23 lead into halftime.
Northern Michigan committed 10 first half turnovers and SVSU scored 13 points off of those mis-haps.
Jackson led all scorers in the first 20 minutes, scoring 11 points in 17 first half minutes while adding five rebounds. Junior Greg Foster (Indianapolis, Ind./TC Howe HS) also reached double-figures in scoring in the opening half, netting 10 points while also playing 17 minutes.
SVSU maintained the lead throughout the second half, outscoring the Wildcats by a 48-38 count in the final 20 minutes of play, closing-out for the 15-point victory, 76-61.
The Cardinals committed only six turnovers in the contest compared to 15 for Northern and finished with 20 points off of Wildcat turnovers.
Foster earned Meijer "Player of the Game" honors after finishing with a game-high 24 points and team-high seven rebounds. Jackson and senior Dan Genther (Laingsburg, Mich.) each had 13 points, with Jackson also grabbing a team-high seven rebounds.
The Cardinals, having already secured the #8 seed in the 2010-11 GLIAC Men's Basketball Tournament, will travel to Ferris State University on Wednesday for a quarterfinal contest at 7:00 PM. The same two teams met in last year's first round, with Ferris coming-out with a 65-59 victory.
