The Malone University women's basketball team earned a victory in its first road contest of the 2014-15 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference campaign with a 62-57 win at Lake Superior State University (MI) on Thursday night.
 
With the triumph, the Pioneers improved to 4-2 overall and to 2-1 in the GLIAC while the Lakers dropped to 3-3 overall and to 0-3 in conference play.
 
Despite an early jump on the hosts, Malone soon found itself down by between four and eight points for most of the first half and by as many as nine points, at 26-17, with 2:45 remaining.  After cutting the lead to four points, the Pioneers went into the locker room trailing by six, 28-22, at the intermission.
 
Within the first few minutes of the second half, the Lakers held an eight-point, 32-24 lead when Malone started a huge run that saw the Pioneers outscore LSSU 19-4 over the next nine minutes of play to post a 43-36 advantage with 9:53 left in the contest.
 
The hosts would not fold, though, as twice Lake Superior State trimmed the lead to just one point, the final time at 53-52 with just 1:58 remaining.  After Malone went back up by six points, LSSU hit a three-pointer to cut the Pioneer advantage to three points, at 60-57, with just 11 ticks left on the clock.  But after being fouled, Pioneer guard Rachel Goddard converted both of her free throws with 10 seconds left to seal the 62-57 Malone win.
 
The big edge for the Pioneers came at the free throw line as Malone netted 19 of 27 attempts to just six of eight for the Lakers but even more impressive was the squad's jump in field goal percentage from 25% in the first half to nearly 60% in the final stanza.
 
For Malone, forward Lindsy Snyder and guard Selana Reale paced the squad with 15 points each as Snyder also yanked down a team-best 12 rebounds on the night, which moved her from ninth to seventh on Malone's all-time rebounding list with 642.
 
Forward Bri Libertore and Goddard each tallied eight points for Malone while Libertore also grabbed five rebounds.  Guard Audrey Myers posted six points.
 
For LSSU, Stephanie Fisher led the team with a game-high 23 points while Alexandra Morrow and Kandace Crittendon each had a team-best five boards.
 
Malone will finish out its weekend trip in Michigan with a Saturday contest at Northwood University (4-3, 2-1 GLIAC) at 5:00 p.m.  Live stats and live video will be available.