Box Score

Five players from the Malone University men's basketball team (6-7, 4-5) scored in double figures but it wasn't enough as the Pioneers dropped a road contest to Lake Erie College 98-93 Thursday night.

The game was played about as tight as possible over the first 37 minutes as the lead changed hands 33 times and was all tied 15 times. With the game hanging in the balance at 81-80 in Lake Erie's favor, the Storm finally managed to find some breathing room by knocking down three-pointers on back to back posessions to put them up seven with 2:20 to go.

The Storm would then salt the game away at the charity stripe, sinking 11 of 13 attempts over the game's last 2 minutes.

Senior Isiah Elliott led Malone with 23 points while senior Cory Veldhuizen registered a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Christian Graves and seniors Vince Kazmierczak and Che Richardson joined those two in double figures with 18, 12 and 11 points, respectively. Kazmierczak scored all 12 of his points in the first half by going 4 of 4 from three-point range, while Richardson did all of his damage in the second period.

Malone shot 29-67 from the floor (43% ), 12-32 from three-point range (38%) and 23-29 (79%) from the line. Lake Erie boasted even better numbers hitting 51% from the field, 48% from distance, and 81% from the line while also outrebounding Malone 39-36.

Malone returns to the hardwood on Saturday, Jan. 18, to do battle at Ashland University at 3:00 pm.  Fans can listen to all of the action on the Malone Sports Network (radio broadcast on ESPN 990 AM and streaming at www.espn990.com).