November 27, 2004
Men’s Basketball
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Box Score

CARDS DROP FIRST OF THE YEAR, 70-60, AT CENTRAL MICHIGAN

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State men’s basketball team ran into a huge discrepancy at the free throw line on Saturday from the Rose Arena. The Chippewas made a living at the charity stripe, especially in the second half where they went 29-of-36 (80.5 percent). The Chippewas scored 64.4 percent of their second half points (45 second-half points) at the foul line. In contrast, SVSU finished the entire game just 7-of-13 at the line. SVSU (3-1) committed 13 critical second-half turnovers and 20 turnovers for the game. Amidst all of the fouls, three SVSU players fouled out of the contest. Senior Kenny Nether (Southfield, Mich./Canton HS) fouled out after 29 minutes while registering his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Brandon Ball (Grand Rapids, Mich./Union HS) played just 21 minutes because of foul trouble. Ball fouled out with five points and three steals. Senior Rojelio Grady (Dearborn, Mich./Fordson HS) scored all of his 11 points in the first half and played a solid 37 minutes with two assists and two rebounds. SVSU was without the services of senior Anthony Parker who missed the game due to injury.
The Cardinals broke out of the gate with a cold shooting touch going 0-of-5 in the game’s first four minutes. However they only trailed 3-0 due to tough defense. SVSU got on the board with a Nether steal and fast break lay-in making it 3-2 at 15:07. Grady then hit for five straight Cardinal points at 12:23 tying it at 7-7. The Cards first lead of the game came at 13-11 on pair of Jeremiah McLaurin (Saginaw, Mich.) free throws at 8:40. A Sydney McDaniel (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike HS) triple at 5:43 gave SVSU another lead at 16-15 and Nether’s triple gave SVSU their biggest lead at 19-15 at 5:00 in the half. The Cards scored the final six points of the half on Grady back-to-back triples to lead 31-25 at half. CMU was 10-of-11 at the line in the first 20 minutes compared to 3-of-4 for the Cardinals. SVSU shot 39.3 percent (11-of-28) and the Chippewas shot 41.2 percent (7-of-17). SV was 6-of-12 from behind the arc. Tony Bowne’s nine points led the CMU offensive attack.
The Chips regained the lead at 34-33 at 16:29 in the second half on a Steve Harris putback. Tom Pantlind’s slam dunk off a turnover give CMU a 38-36 lead at 15:50 as SVSU was outscored 13-5 in first four minutes of second half. Junior Ron McGrew (Inkster, Mich./Dearborn Robichaud) threw down a dunk that tied it at 38-38 at 14:30. Nether made it 40-39 at 12:35 on fadeaway 14-footer giving the lead back to SVSU. SVSU hit a bad cold spell in the second half managing to score just four points in an eight-minute stretch that hurt the Cards momentum from the first half.
McDaniel led SVSU with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting. SVSU outrebounded CMU, 33-32, for the contest. SVSU will host GLIAC foe Wayne State on Thursday, December 2 at 7:30 pm.

Contact: Ryan Thompson (989) 964-4053