The women’s basketball team finished the weekend by earning its first win of the season in a 1-1 weekend split in the GLIAC/GLVC crossover.
SVSU won its second game of the year against St. Joseph’s College (Ind.), 76-71.
“It’s always good to get that first win of the season and remember what that feels like and what it takes to get it,” Coach Jamie Pewinski said.
The first half was dominated by small back-and-forth runs for both teams, with SVSU struggling to maintain the lead. With minutes left in the half, St. Joe’s took a basket lead, but a pair of baskets from the Cardinal’s ended the first half tied at 39.
Aggressive play in the second half worked in favor of the lady Cardinals as they jumped out to an early lead in the second half. They would lose the lead only once more before taking control for the remainder of the game to close out the victory.
“This game showed the potential that we have as a team,” senior Shelby Herrington said. “We showed a lot of improvement from our first game, especially in taking care of the ball and rebounding.”
Sophomore Emily Wendling led the team with 33 points and 8 rebounds. Junior Alex Green added an additional 15 points to the score.
“Green was a huge key for us being able to shoot 5-8 from the three-point line, as she helped get some defenders away from Emily,” Pewinski said. “When things got tough in the game, we didn’t back down, but regrouped and got back to what was working for us.”
Friday featured a tough 85-60 loss to the nationally ninth ranked team, Lewis University.
The lack of experience showed for the Cardinals against the very good team from Lewis.
“We have a lot of inexperienced players on the court that were trying to acclimated to the college game pace,” Pewinski said. “Lewis definitely took advantage of that as they are very talented and experienced.”
The two teams alternated large runs early in the first half. Sophomore Abby Schlicher nailed a three-pointer to bring the score within one, but it would not get closer.
“We played with great energy and effort in the first half and got really good play out of freshman guard Hailey Krewald and sophomore post Wendling,” Pewinski said.
Krewald kept the Cardinals alive in the second half, hitting a couple of key shots to keep Lewis’ lead under ten. Wendling would score the next ten for the Cardinals, but it was not enough as Lewis won with ease.
“For the most part we learned that we can’t be satisfied at halftime and we need to put two good halves together,” Pewinski said.
Krewald would finish the game with a team-high 16 points. Seniors Samantha Zirzow and Herrington each tallied seven points with five rebounds.
“We have a big week of practice ahead of us as we continue to work on our defense and being able to contain the drive, but I really liked our effort and energy the entire St. Joe game,” Coach Pewinski said.
The Cardinals will prepare to head north over the Thanksgiving break, where they will play three games in Alaska between Nov. 27th and 29th. The young team is looking to continue to improve and get better.
