UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. â€Â“ The NMU womenâ€Â™s basketball teamsuffered their second straight defeat on the road Saturday afternoon when theydropped an 82-68 decision to Saginaw Valley State University.  The â€Â˜Cats fall to 14-4 overall on the seasonand 6-4 in the GLIAC.  The Cardinals arenow 14-7 and 6-6 in the conference.

Down by 16 at the half, 40-24, the â€Â˜Cats only managed tomake nine field goals out of 30 attempts in the first 20 minutes of play.  For the game the â€Â˜Cats were 25-of-63 for 39.7percent from the floor.  NMU did out-scorethe Cardinals in the second half by a 44-42 count. 

SVSU hit a season-high 11 three-pointers as the â€Â˜Cats were5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from the three-point line on the day.  From the free throw line NMU was 13-of-18 for72.2 percent. 

Emily Belland led the â€Â˜Cats with 18 points for thegame.  She was a perfect 6-of-6 from thefloor and free throw line.  TiffanyGrubaugh had a double-double on the afternoon with her 16 points and 10rebounds.  She also had five assists,three blocks and two steals.  Two otherâ€Â˜Cats hit for double-digits as Emily Samuelson had 13 points and Tera Oppermanadded 11 markers.  Samuelson also hadfive assists to go along with her three steals for the game.

The Cardinals grabbed 10 more rebounds than the â€Â˜Cats with43 rebounds to 33 for the visitors.  Thewin snapped an eight-game losing skid against the â€Â˜Cats for the Cardinals.

NMU has their next six games at home at the Berry Events Center.  First up is Grand Valley State Universityon Thursday (Feb. 5) at 5:30 p.m.

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