UNIVERSITY CENTER, MICH. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team trailed by 22 points with just over 10 minutes left in regulation and battled back to fall 86-77 to No. 20 Northern Michigan on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals' (9-7, 3-5 GLIAC) bench outscored the Wildcats (16-2, 7-1 GLIAC) 41-22 in the losing effort.
"I think both of the teams we played this week are at the top of the league for a reason, and they came in and showed us why," said head coach Chris Fowler. "We understand now how far we are away from what's at the top, and what we are chasing. We will continue to chase that on a daily basis."
For the second time this season, freshman forward Aidan Duran (Spring, Texas / Victory Rock Prep) led the team in scoring. He tallied 17 points and added 10 rebounds to secure his first career double-double.
Northern Michigan connected on back-to-back threes early, taking a 12-5 lead within four minutes. A pivotal 9-0 run later extended their advantage to 34-20 at the 6:06 mark, setting the first double-digit margin of the contest.
Triston Nichols (Shelby Twp., Mich. / De La Salle HS) hit a turnaround jumper to spark a 7-0 run and trim the lead in half. Nichols joined Duran as the other Cardinal player to score double-digit points off the bench, as he finished with 14 points. He added three assists and three rebounds to his totals as well.
The Wildcats responded with two more shots from deep to regain a 13-point lead, 42-29, in the closing three minutes of the half, and maintain a double-digit lead (45-35) at the break.
NMU shot 50% from the floor, which included 8-of-15 from beyond the arc, to build the lead at the half.
The Wildcats made three shots from deep in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. The third one created the largest lead of the contest, 68-46, with 10:13 remaining in the game.
From that point, the Cardinal defense clamped down, holding NMU to three three-pointers on ten attempts in the half.
Jack Stefanski (Frankfort, Mich. / Frankfort HS) connected on a three-pointer, igniting a 7-0 run that cut the margin to 15 at 68-53 with 8:13 left.
The lead moved back to 19, but SVSU battled back with a 6-0 run and back-to-back three-point jumpers to bring the Cardinals within nine points, 80-71, of the lead. Duran made the first one and was fouled to complete the four-point play and put the gap at 10 points.
Dontez Scott II (Romulus, Mich. / Summit Academy North) then hit a step-back three and a second one two possessions later to put the score at 82-74 with 46 seconds remaining.
Duran made another three-pointer with two seconds to play, marking SVSU's final push before time expired, and the comeback fell short.
UP NEXT: The Cardinals complete the three-game homestand on Thursday, January 22. Lake Superior State visits O'Neill Arena for a 7:30 p.m. (ET) matchup.
