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Printer-Friendly ModeMen drop final game to Timberwolves, 69-65
February 27, 2006 —
The SVSU men's basketball team erased a 10-point Northwood lead before losing in the final minute, 69-65, in Midland on Saturday.
After trailing by eight at halftime, the Cardinals found themselves down 14 less than three minutes into the second half. SVSU was able to whittle that down to five on two separate occasions, but the Timberwolves pushed the lead back to 10 with 7:43 left.
SVSU responded with a 13-2 run to take a one-point lead with 1:17 left in the game. SVSU held Northwood to 1-of-9 shooting during the stretch and drew six fouls on the Timberwolves. The fouls led to eight free throws for the Cardinals, and they made seven of them.
Junior Andrae Betts scored eight of the 13 points during the run, shooting 2-of-3 from three-point range and making two free throws. Betts finished the game with 11 points.
After Northwood senior Nemanja Kreckovic missed a jumper, his team got the offensive rebound and called a timeout. The Timberwolves got the ball back to Kreckovic for a three-pointer, but he was fouled by Cardinals junior Sydney McDaniel and went to the line for three free throws. Kreckovic made all three, giving the Timberwolves a two-point lead.
Following an SVSU timeout, Betts missed a three with 17 seconds left, but sophomore Chris Johnston grabbed the offensive board and was fouled by Timberwolves senior Graham Mertz. Johnston, third in the GLIAC in free-throw percentage, hit both, tying the score for the third time in a minute and fourth time in the game.
On the ensuing possession, Kreckovic was fouled on a drive by Cardinals sophomore Mike Zuiderveen. Kreckovic, who finished with 26 points, hit both free throws to put his team up two. Following a Northwood timeout, SVSU freshman Adam Mughmaw's inbound pass was stolen by freshman Aaron Simpson, who was immediately fouled. Simpson, who finished with 14 points, hit both to finish the scoring.
The Cardinals were led by Johnston, who scored 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Freshman Luke Laser added 17 as well on 6-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three-point range.
Kreckovic shot 5-of-13 from the field to lead all scorers. Playing his final game, he hit 5-of-11 three pointers and made all 11 of his free throw attempts. Mertz scored eight points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out six assists.
The Cardinals shot 40.7 percent for the game, including 42.3 percent in the second half, but could not overcome Northwood's free throw shooting at the end. The Timberwolves finished the game 18-of-22 (81.8 percent) from the line, while SVSU shot 93.3 percent but had seven fewer attempts from the line.
The loss dropped SVSU to 4-14 in the GLIAC and 9-18 overall, while the Timberwolves won their second conference game of the season and first of 2006.
SVSU will lose only senior Darryl Vinson from this year's squad, and will have four seniors and three juniors on next year's squad.