The Wayne State University women’s basketball team concluded its regular season with a 94-78 win over Saginaw Valley State University on Saturday at the WSU Fieldhouse in Detroit. With this victory, Wayne State secured the No. 2 seed for the upcoming GLIAC tournament and will face Roosevelt in a quarterfinal match on Wednesday, March 4.
This win also marked head coach Carrie Lohr’s 250th career victory at Wayne State.
Wayne State opened the game with an eight-point run, led by senior Gabi Lutchka, Mackenzie Miller, and Taylor Thompson. The Warriors finished the first quarter ahead 26-10 after a late three-pointer from Karrington Gordon.
In the second quarter, Saginaw Valley narrowed the gap to ten points twice before Wayne State responded with a nine-point run to extend their lead. By halftime, Wayne State led 49-34 after shooting 63 percent from the field and making more than half of their three-point attempts. Thompson scored 13 points in the first half, while Lutchka added 12.
The Warriors began the third quarter with another eight consecutive points but saw their lead cut to twelve after an eleven-point run by Saginaw Valley. A strong finish to the period put Wayne State up by nineteen entering the final quarter.
Saginaw Valley managed to reduce its deficit to fourteen points twice in the fourth quarter, but Wayne State maintained control and closed out with a thirteen-to-eleven scoring advantage over the last five minutes.
Wayne State shot 58 percent from the floor overall and made twelve of twenty-one three-pointers. The team also converted fourteen of sixteen free throws and outrebounded Saginaw Valley 38-29.
Lutchka led all scorers with twenty-six points on six-of-seven shooting from beyond the arc. Thompson contributed twenty-two points and nine rebounds. Gordon added twelve points, McKenna Ferguson had sixteen, and Emily Homan recorded five assists.
For Saginaw Valley, Lydia Meredith scored eighteen points and collected seven rebounds. Emma Dziezgowski had seventeen points including four three-pointers, while Lainey Yater tallied four assists.
Wayne State will host Roosevelt next at home in Detroit for their GLIAC Quarterfinal matchup as part of intercollegiate athletics competition (official website). The program has previously earned NCAA Tournament appearances and won GLIAC division titles such as those in 2012-13 (North Division) and 2014-15 (South Division) (official website). The team’s mascot is “W the Warrior” (official website).
