Box Score

A strong effort on both ends of the floor by the Malone University women's basketball team, in its second straight home win, allowed the Pioneers to post a convincing victory on Saturday afternoon against Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe Grand Valley State University (MI) in a 69-52 contest.

At the midway point of the first half, the Pioneers (9-5 overall, 4-4 GLIAC) jumped on top early over the Lakers (8-4 overall, 6-2 GLIAC) with a 24-8 lead.  Malone executed both its offense and defense extremely well during that stretch. 

Well before the intermission, Malone maintained its lead, which at its largest was a 29-11 advantage, but it was cut into drastically when the Lakers went on a tear with a 16-0 run late in the half to steal the momentum and enter  halftime down only 29-27. 

The Pioneers quickly turned the momentum back around after coming out to a blazing hot start with an 11-0 run to begin the second half.  The closest the Lakers could come in the second half was 43-37 with 10:46 left until the Pioneers again pulled away and took clear control.  In a game of runs, Malone put together enough of them to put the game out of reach and secure the victory. 

Both teams had just below average afternoons from the field.  The Pioneers made 22 of 56 (39.3%) shots from the field to go along with four of 13 (30.8%) from deep while the opposition Lakers made 14 of 52 (26.9%) field goals and two of 15 (13.3%) treys. Both teams managed to reach the charity stripe an impressive amount of times today.  Malone made 21 of 30 (70%) while GVSU converted 22 of 33 (66.7%) from the stripe.  In addition, the Pioneers controlled the boards by a 48-33 margin.

Guard Sydnee Penn exploded out of the gate in the second half, with 18 points for the period, as she finished with 21 on the day. Penn also added nine boards, which led all Pioneers.  Along with Penn in double figures was guard Selana Reale with 13 points and forward Lindsy Snyder with ten. Snyder also racked up eight rebounds.  Forward Bri Libertore added a key spark off the bench with nine points of her own while also notching three rebounds.

For the Lakers, Kayla Dawson paced the team with 13 points.  Bailey Cairnduff added ten to go along with four rebounds and three steals for GVSU. 

The Pioneers look to continue to improve their record and win streak as they face off against Lake Erie College away at 6 p.m. next Thursday (Jan 16th).  Live stats and live audio are available for this contest.