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For the second time in a 14-day span the Malone University men's basketball team travelled to an opponent's home court and brought a lengthy winning streak to an end.  After snapping the University of Findlay's stretch of 71 consecutive home wins with a 74-71 triumph at the Oilers' Croy Gymnasium on November 15th, the Pioneers accomplished a similar feat on Tuesday night, ending Walsh University's streak of 48 straight home victories by outlasting the Cavaliers 71-67 in front of a packed house at Alumni Arena.

Walsh entered its home opener on Tuesday night with an undefeated record in 30 prior games at Alumni Arena.  However, Cavalier fans witnessed something on Tuesday that had not occurred in the building since the facility opened prior to the start of the 2009-10 campaign - a Walsh loss.

The tightly-contested match up featured 11 ties and 16 lead changes.  The final tie of the game came with just under four minutes to play as a bucket by Malone forward Cory Veldhuizen knotted the score at 60-60.  Walsh pulled ahead with a three-pointer on its next trip down the floor before the Pioneers fought back.  A basket by forward Zach Bates cut the deficit to 63-62, Malone then pulled ahead for good on a trey by guard Che Richardson with 70 seconds remaining.

Following a Walsh turnover, guard Isiah Elliott then split a pair of free throws to push the Pioneer advantage to 66-63 with under a minute to play.  Walsh twice pulled to within one on back-to-back jumpers by Cavalier center Kenny Kornowski.  Freshman guard Michael Shull answered Kornowski's buckets each time, though, hitting four clutch free throws over a ten-second span to keep Malone in front 70-67.

Walsh came up empty on a potential game-tying three-pointer in the final moments and Richardson then split two more free throws with one tick remaining on the clock to seal the hard-fought victory.

The Pioneers' overall record improved to 3-3 with the win while the Cavaliers fell to 3-1. 

In addition to bringing Walsh's lengthy home winning streak to a close, Tuesday's Malone victory also ended several other streaks in the rivalry series.  The four-point triumph halted Malone's nine-game losing streak to Walsh as the Pioneers had not defeated their local rivals since February 3rd, 2007 in a 79-72 Mayors' Cup triumph at Osborne Hall.  The Cavaliers had also won 16 straight over Malone on their home court.  The Pioneers last win at Walsh came by a final score of 75-68 on January 27th, 1997.

To add to the history, when coupled with a 58-53 win for the Malone women's team over Walsh earlier in the evening, Tuesday's doubleheader victory marked the first time ever that the Pioneers swept the Cavaliers on their court on the same night. And not since the 1993-94 campaign had the Pioneer men and women both won on the Cavs' home floor in the same season.

Guard Eric Coblentz scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the first six minutes of the contest to help Malone charge out to an early 17-4 advantage.  Walsh quickly responded, fighting back to grab a19-17 edge midway through the opening stanza after rattling off 15 unanswered points. 

Malone took a slim 36-34 advantage to the locker room at halftime.  The lead then exchanged hands numerous times in the second half before Richardson's three-pointer from the corner gave the visitors a lead they would not relinquish.

On the evening, the Pioneers connected on 40.7% (22 of 54) of their field-goal attempts, 36.8% (7 of 19) of their three-pointers and 80% (20 of 25) of their free throws.  The Cavaliers countered by making 44.3% (27 of 61) of their shots from the field, 28.6% (4 of 14) of their attempts from beyond the arc and 64.3% (9 of 14) of their foul shots.  Malone also held a 42-32 edge in total rebounds

Coblentz knocked down three of five three-pointers and sank all four of his free throws en route to the game-high point total.  The senior, who transferred to Malone following a year of competition at the University of Akron, is now just nine points shy of reaching the 1000-point milestone, having racked up 991 points in his Pioneer career.  Bates added 15 points and seven boards.  Veldhuizen also tossed in 15 points while Elliot contributed 12 points and seven rebounds.

Guard Cameron Mitchell paced Walsh with 14 points.  Kornowski added 13 points and nine rebounds while forward Ron Kinney also notched 13 points.

Malone will be back in action over the weekend as the squad hosts the Hoops 4 Healing Classic on Friday and Saturday.  The Pioneers will face Ohio Christian University on Friday at 8:00 p.m. before taking on OSU-Lima on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.  Live statistics will be provided for both of Malone's games over the weekend.  Click here for a complete Hoops 4 Healing schedule.