The No. 2 seed Saginaw Valley women’s basketball team played host in the GLIAC tournament for the first time in program history on Tuesday, March 1, but the Lady Cardinals didn’t act like it was their first rodeo.
SVSU defeated the No. 7 seed Northwood Timberwolves 63-40, giving the Cards their third victory over Northwood this year.
“We’ve prepared the same way for about a month now,” head coach Jamie Pewinski said. “Every game is a must win, and we’ve felt it’s been a must-win in order to win the conference.
“Beating (Northwood) three times isn’t something you always want to have to do,” Pewinski added. “But the more we played them the more comfortable we got with what they’re trying to do. I just thought our kids were focused, and knowing it’s our rival really got us to what we needed to do to be victorious.”
Halee Nieman got the Lady Cardinals on the board first. She then stole a Timberwolves pass and took it to the basket to give SVSU an early four-point advantage.
The Cards held a 10-5 lead with six minutes remaining in the first quarter, but a pair of fouls against SVSU turned the momentum in Northwood’s favor.
The Timberwolves drew within three before Katelyn Carriere’s first points of the game extended the Cardinals’ lead to five. At the end of the first quarter, the Lady Cards led Northwood 18-13.
A three-point play from Danielle Carriere gave SVSU the momentum in the second quarter. The senior drew a foul on a layup and added the free throw to give the Cardinals a 23-13 lead with six minutes left in the first half.
The Lady Cards’ defense dominated in the second quarter, preventing the Timberwolves from scoring for the first six minutes of the quarter. Meanwhile, the SVSU offense did its part, pulling to a 15-point advantage with just over a minute to play.
Going into the locker room, the Cardinals led Northwood 34-21.
Northwood started the second half well, scoring first before forcing a couple of turnovers.
Northwood began eating away at the SVSU lead, but an Alex Green three-point shot stole the momentum away, giving the Cardinals a 47-27 advantage with just under a minute to play in the third quarter.
SVSU held a 51-28 lead heading into the final quarter of play, and Emily Wendling began to take the game over, scoring eight points in the span of a few minutes to expand the Cardinals’ lead to 31 with six minutes left in the game.
Wendling wound up leading SVSU in points, scoring 31, while pulling down eight rebounds.
The Timberwolves were able to cut into the deficit, but it wasn’t nearly enough, as the Cards came away with the victory.
Next up for the Cardinals will be the No. 6 seed Grand Valley State. The Lakers defeated Michigan Tech 65-63 in overtime in the quarterfinals.
SVSU is 2-0 against GVSU this season.
“We’re playing well right now,” Pewinski said. “We believe in each other, we’re confident and we just hope to continue that on Saturday (against Grand Valley).”
