MARQUETTE – For much of the game, the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team played Saginaw Valley State straight up Thursday night at the Berry Events Center.

Unfortunately for head coach Troy Mattson’s Wildcats, there were stretches when the Cardinals dominated play.

The end result was a 70-54 GLIAC loss for Northern.

“(The Cardinals) just upped their intensity on defense at the end,” Mattson said after his team fell to 6-11 overall and 5-6 in the conference. “We couldn’t run our offense.

“You want to beat good teams on your home court and I thought Saginaw Valley was a team we’d have a chance (to beat). But we just didn’t put a whole game together.”

Redshirt freshman guard Darby Youngstrom scored a career-high 17 points to lead NMU. Kendall Martenet added 10 points and Taylor Hodell grabbed seven rebounds.

For GLIAC North Division leader SVSU (12-4, 9-2) – which won its eighth straight game – conference-leading scorer Emily Wendling poured in 22 points and hauled in eight boards. Katelyn Carriere added 16 points.

NMU took an early 13-6 lead with some good ball movement and tight defense.

“We tried to take them off the dribble early,” Martenet said.

SVSU came back to tie the score at 18-18 heading into the second quarter, then a drive for a bucket by Youngstrom eventually gave NMU a 28-27 lead with 2:45 left in the half off a steal by Houghton’s Sydney Dillinger.

A triple from the corner by Northern’s Bre Gaspervich gave her team a 33-31 advantage, but SVSU came back to take a 34-33 lead at the half.

“Saginaw is a good team,” Youngstrom said. “We were happy to be in the game (at the half). We would have been more happy if we were winning.”

Said Mattson: “We could have had the lead at halftime.”

SVSU came out quickly in the second half to build a 46-37 lead with 6:12 mark left in the third quarter. Youngstrom notched nine points in the stanza as NMU trailed 54-48 heading into the fourth.

“It wasn’t that they were scorching the nets on us,” Mattson said of the SVSU surge to start the second half. “We just didn’t get defensive rebounds.

“When we did defend well enough and (the Cardinals) missed (a shot), we didn’t rebound the basketball.

“You’re not going to win any games if you don’t get defensive rebounds.”

SVSU went on an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter for a 65-48 advantage with 6:43 left to play. The Cardinals eventually opened a 20-point lead with 3:53 remaining to put the game on ice.

“They had much more energy to crash the offensive boards,” Martenet said. “They were also able to intercept some of our passes.”

Another factor in the game was Northern’s 19 turnovers, aided by seven SVSU steals.

“That was just (the Cardinals),” Mattson said of the NMU miscues. “They have some tough guards with experience. They bothered us.

“They see young kids out there and come after them. We haven’t handled it all that well against those types of teams.”

Craig Remsburg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 251. His email address is cremsburg@miningjournal.net.