MARQUETTE, Mich. â€Ã‚“ Holding onto a 45-41 lead at thehalf the NMU menâ€Ã‚™s basketball team fell to Saginaw Valley State on Saturdayafternoon by a score of 85-77.  TheCardinals held the 44-32 point advantage in the second 20 minutes of play.  The â€Ã‚˜Cats are now 12-9 overall for theseason and 8-5 in the GLIAC.  TheCardinals improve to 11-12 and 5-9.

The Cardinals raced out to a nine to two lead after thefirst two minutes of the game.  Theâ€Ã‚˜Cats had their first lead of the game when Milan Azanjac made two free throwswith 5:31 left in the first half to give the â€Ã‚˜Cats the lead at 29-27.  NMU had a nine point lead at 41-32 with 3:07left in the first half, but the Cardinals cut that lead to four points bymaking seven free throws in a span of about three minutes. 

The second half was a little different story as theCardinals went on a 26 to 13 run to make the score 70-56 with 11:14 left in thegame.  With less than five minutes leftin the game the â€Ã‚˜Cats had the score down to three points at 75-72.  But the Cardinals found ways to keep thelead the rest of the way.  Steve Wattsmade a free throw with 3:57 left on the clock to make it 76-75.  The â€Ã‚˜Cats would only score two more pointsthe rest of the way. 

Azanjac ended the afternoon with a career-high 19 points anda career-high 12 rebounds.  Off thebench Steve Watts had 15 points as Antwuan Holt added 12.  Marco Volcy was the other starter to scorein the double-digit column with 11 points. Anthony Parker led the Cardinals with 25 points.

NMU shot 47.5 percent form the floor for the game (28-59)and were 5-19 in three-pointers (26.3 percent).  From the free throw line the â€Ã‚˜Cats were 16-24 for 66.7percent.  NMU did out-rebound SVSU by a39-33 margin. 

The team will be back in action on Monday night (Feb. 10) atthe Berry Events Center against Michigan Tech.