UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Lake Superior State (LSSU) women's basketball team (1-16, 0-8 GLIAC) narrowly fell to the Saginaw Valley State (SVSU) Cardinals (6-12, 3-5 GLIAC) by a final score of 64-63 on Thursday.

The Cardinals struck first, but after Brittany Bowman (Kingsley, Mich.) stole the ball away, Gracey Metz (Hartland, Mich.) fired from distance to put the Lakers in front. Both teams would battle in the opening quarter, but LSSU continued to let it fly with threes from Metz, Breah Golden (Arcadia, Wis.), and CeCe Hacker (Omaha, Neb.) to put the Lakers up by seven. However, the Cardinals came back to tie it up before a layup from Amanda Roach (Hartland, Mich.) had the Lakers ahead after the first ten minutes.

Hacker would then hit on another three to open the second quarter as they nursed a slim lead, but SVSU was able to go up by one right before halftime. 

Both teams went back-and-forth to open the second half, but ten straight points from Golden propelled the Lakers to an eight point advantage, a margin that they would hold going into the fourth quarter. 

A Grace Bradford (Maple City, Mich.) shot from beyond the arc would have the Lakers up by as many as nine with just over five minutes to play. However, the Cardinals were able to fight back, stealing the game away with a game-winning free throw with three seconds on the clock.

Golden led the way offensively with 20 points off the bench. Meanwhile, Jaden Wilder (Manton, Mich.) and Metz also finished in double-figures with 15 and 11 points, respectively, while Bradford led all players in rebounding with nine.

The Lakers return to action on Saturday, Jan. 27 when they face the Wayne State Warriors with tipoff scheduled for 1 p.m.