A tremendous comeback bid by the Malone University women's basketball team in a home contest against GLIAC opponent Hillsdale College (MI) fell just short as the Pioneers lost to the Chargers by the score of 72-67 in Malone's Osborne Hall Sunday afternoon.

With the loss, Malone dropped to 5-5 overall on the campaign and to 3-3 in the GLIAC while Hillsdale improved to 8-2 overall and to 4-2 in conference play.

It truly was a tale of two halves for Malone as the squad found itself down by the improbable score of 27-4 with seven minutes left in the first half after nearly everything that the Pioneers tossed at the basket would not fall.  Over the final seven minutes of the half, Malone did start to pull things together a bit but still found itself down by a 33-15 margin at the intermission after shooting a disappointing 20.0% percent from the field, including a 1-for-13 performance from three-point range, in the first 20 minutes.

In the second half, despite scoring 52 points, as compared to just 15 in the first half, the Pioneers could not quite get over the top to pull out the win.  Malone cut the lead to just eight points, at 41-33, with 12:27 left in the game but the visitors extended that lead back out to 18 points, at 57-39, with 7:17 remaining.  A 13-0 Pioneer run, though, trimmed their deficit back to just seven points at 59-52 with 4:29 left.

In that final 4+ minute stretch, Malone was able to twice the cut the lead to just six points, the latest at 66-60 with 53 seconds left, but the Chargers held on for the win as Malone scored the final basket of the game at the buzzer to make the final score 72-67, a five-point margin which was the smallest since Hillsdale led by five very early in the game.  A valiant Malone effort which included a 52.5% second-half field goal percentage (including a 53.3% effort from long range), wasn't quite enough.

One key to the contest was the tremendous edge that the visitors had in free throw attempts as the Chargers converted 23 of 34 tries while Malone connected on six of 11.  Other than overall field goal percentage, most other statistics were fairly even.

For Malone, four Pioneers scored in double digits with three leading the squad with 14 points each. Guard Selana Reale, who tallied 14 points, achieved a pair of career milestones in the contest as she moved into the top 25 on the Pioneers' all-time rebounding list and into the top 10 on Malone's all-time assists list.  Reale is now 25th in rebounds (387 including a team-best 10 today) and 10th in assists (274 with an impressive team-high of eight today).  In addition, she also pocketed a team-best four steals.

Guards Alahna Singleton and Rachel Goddard were also among those who achieved the team-best 14 points in the contest with Singleton hitting 4-of-5 from the field, including 2-of-2 from long range, and 4-of-4 from the foul line.  She also had seven rebounds while Goddard yanked down four rebounds while also tallying two assists and two steals.  Guard Audrey Myers also reached twin figures with 10 points.

For the Chargers, Kayla Geffert led the team with 18 points while Megan Fogt pulled down a team-best eight rebounds.

Malone will next compete in an away conference contest at Ferris State University (MI) (6-3, 4-2) on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.  Live stats will be available.