After its impressive 20-point win at Grand Valley State University (MI) last Saturday, the Malone University men's basketball team made it two in a row on Thursday night with a solid 77-64 home victory over GLIAC opponent Lake Erie College.

With the triumph, Malone improved to 5-10 overall and to 3-6 in conference play while the Storm fell to 5-8 overall and to 2-7 in the GLIAC.

A nine-for-21 effort from three-point range and an excellent 20-for-24 showing at the foul line helped propel the Pioneers to victory while the hosts also controlled the boards by a comfortable 31-24 advantage.

Early in the contest, though, the visitors established a 17-9 lead six minutes into the game before Malone went on a 12-0 run to grab a 21-17 edge with 9:19 remaining in the stanza.  The game remained fairly close over the next several minutes before Malone, in the final four minutes of the period, scored the final seven points of the half to pocket a 37-30 lead at the intermission.

In the final half, the Pioneer lead swelled to 14 points, at 50-36 with 15 minutes left, but the Storm would make a strong run at the hosts by closing the gap to just 57-51 with 8:28 remaining.  From that point, though, the Pioneers slowly pulled away, extending their lead to the largest of the contest at 17 (76-59) with just over a minute to go before settling in for the 77-64, 13-point victory.

For Malone, guard Ben Haraway poured in a team-best 27 points, on 9-of-14 shooting and a 7-of-9 effort at the line, while also tallying four rebounds and a team-high four assists.  Guard Nate Sheppard followed with 13 points, including a 7-for-7 performance at the charity stripe, while guard Stephen O'Daniel III and forward Mitch Spotleson each racked up 10 points.  O'Daniel also dished out three assists while Spotleson yanked down a game-best 11 rebounds.

Lake Erie was paced by Andy Bosley who had 17 points while Jamil Dudley registered 11 points. Nick Wells and Nick Deitsch led the team in rebounds with four apiece.

Malone will next compete in an away GLIAC contest at Ashland University (10-5, 4-5) on Saturday (January 17) in a 3:00 p.m. game.  Live stats and live audio will be available.