UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The women's basketball team continues to fight until the end but just couldn't get over the hump on Thursday in a 65-57 loss at Saginaw Valley State. The Panthers showed their progress after losing by 29 points at home against the Cardinals back on Dec. 4. Over the last four games, the team has shown strides with 11 points being their largest setback. That has improved from their season average of 15.8 points as the margin of victory for the opposition. The three stats that stood out tonight were free throw shooting, turnovers, and fast-break points. DU shot 68 percent at the foul line compared to 89.5 percent for the Cardinals. DU committed 20 turnovers and SVSU scored 24 points off those turnovers. Finally, SVSU held a 28-4 advantage on the fast break.
DU found themselves down 16-7 after a first quarter in which they shot 2-of-10 from the field and 3-of-6 at the charity stripe. The Panthers led by one point twice in the first quarter including 7-6 after
Toni Grace made both free throws. The Cardinals then went on a 10-0 run to end the quarter.
The Cardinals led 27-16 with 1:39 left in the second quarter but the Panthers closed it out on a 6-0 run as
Scout Nelson made two free throws in the last five seconds before halftime. DU saw Saginaw Valley State stretch their lead back to 32-22 to start the third quarter. The Panthers got it down to three points at 42-39 with 1:33 left in the quarter as
Lillee Gustafson made a pair of free throws.
In the final quarter, Davenport got it down to one point on two occasions and had a chance to take the lead. A missed shot and offensive rebound followed by a turnover prevented a lead at the 7:11 mark and then another turnover down 47-46 with 5:50 left led to a triple by Maddie Maloney in transition. Tori DePerry got a basket and Maloney hit another three-pointer to give SVSU a 55-46 lead with 4:39 left to play. DU had the deficit down to 59-56 with 1:08 to go after a
Kenzie Wilkinson split at the free throw stripe. The Cardinals got an offensive rebound off a missed triple and Tyler Scheid had the putback which basically sealed the win for the Cardinals.
Saginaw Valley improved to 16-9 overall (11-7 GLIAC) and got a team-high 18 points from Kaitlyn Zarycki. Maloney scored 16 points and dished out four assists. For the Panthers, Grace led the team with 14 points to go with four rebounds and three assists. Nelson added 11 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Gustafson scored 10 points (all in the second half) and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
