ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team bounced back from a season-opening loss to #18 Lewis yesterday with a 74-72 victory over the St. Joseph's College Pumas.  

The game was the second of two the Lady Cardinals played in the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge, hosted by Lewis University.

Saginaw opened with a 9-0 run to start the game and led by a score of 44-32 at the halftime break.

Junior forward Samantha Zirzow led all scorers in the first half with 18 points and added seven first half rebounds.

Senior guard Kristen Greene had seven rebounds as well to go along with six points.  

SVSU out-rebounded the Pumas by a 23-12 margin in the opening 20 minutes of play.

The Cards held a 13 point lead with the score 70-57 at the 6:24 mark after senior guard Kayla Womack scored four consecutive points and led 72-59 after a good jumper by Greene.

The Pumas stormed back and rattled-off 13 consecutive points and tied the contest at 72-72 after a three-pointer with 11 seconds left.  It was the first time since the game was scoreless at 0-0 that SVSU didn't have the lead.

Saginaw Valley got a layup from Womack with just two seconds remaining, however, to take the lead back at 74-72.  That was where the score would stand, as the Cards sealed the victory to improve to 1-1 overall on the season.

Zirzow finished the game with team-highs in points (20) and rebounds (9) en-route to being named the Meijer "Player of the Game."  She was 8-of-12 shooting from the floor in 32 minutes of action.

Greene had 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in 35 minutes.

Womack added 15 points in a team-high 38 minutes while junior forward Shelby Herrington posted 10 points and five rebounds off the bench for SVSU.

Junior forward Briana Graham chipped-in with eight boards to go along with four points offensively.

The Lady Cardinals finished with a 39-28 overall edge on the glass in the victory.

Saginaw Valley returns to action on Wednesday, November 27th in its home opener against Marygrove College.  The game is slated for a 7:00 pm tip in SVSU's O'Neill Arena.