Box Score
The Malone University women's basketball team came up just short by the score of 55-53 in a home loss to Saginaw Valley State University (MI) on Saturday in Malone's Osborne Hall.  With the loss, the Pioneers dropped to 5-3 overall on the season and to 2-3 in the GLIAC while SVSU improved to 3-4 and 2-2 in GLIAC play.

The visiting Cardinals held the upper hand in the first half as they slowly and methodically stretched their single-digit leads throughout the half into a 10-point halftime advantage by the score of 31-21.

Early in the second half, SVSU continued to pull away from the hosts, opening up its largest lead of the game, at 15 points, by the score of 40-25 with 15:41 left in the game.  But from that point on, it was Malone who slowly and systematically clawed its way back into the contest for the remainder of the second stanza.

An immediate 9-0 run for the Pioneers cut that 40-25 SVSU advantage to just 40-34 before the visitors managed to fight off the hosts for another stretch.  The Cardinals opened their lead back up to 11 points, at 45-34, but the Pioneers then went on a 12-1 roll that cut the SVSU lead to just one point at 47-46 with 5:16 to play.

The Cardinals took the lead back out to six but Malone rallied to trim the lead to 54-53 with 11 seconds left.  After a Malone foul, the visitors then made the front end of a one-and-one at the free throw line before missing the second attempt.  With no timeouts left and only seven seconds left on the clock, Malone grabbed the rebound and drove down for its final shot attempt.  But a three-point attempt for the win by guard Sydnee Penn at the final buzzer hit the front of the rim and bounced off, securing the two-point 55-53 victory for the visiting Cardinals.

Malone was paced by Penn and forward Lindsy Snyder who each tallied a team-best 12 points on the day. Snyder also pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds while Penn had seven rebounds. Guard Logan Pastor tossed in eight points and also posted an impressive seven steals in the contest.

SVSU's Kristen Greene racked up a game-high 14 points to lead the visitors while Emily Wendling was right behind with 12 points.  Wendling and Samantha Zirzow grabbed a team-best seven rebounds each.

A disappointing 29.0% field goal percentage (20-69) for Malone made the comeback task difficult for the squad as the visitors posted a 40.4% (21-52) field goal percentage.  The Pioneers hit just four of 24 from long range for 16.7% while SVSU sank only two of 10 for 20.0%.  At the foul line, both teams attempted 15 shots but the visitors held the slight edge converting 11 (for 73.3%) to Malone's nine (for 60.0%).  A fairly close rebounding battle saw the Cardinals post a 46-40 advantage.

Malone will next compete in another home contest on Wednesday, December 19th at 8:00 p.m. when the squad hosts Wayne State University (MI), which is currently 3-3 (3-1 GLIAC). Live stats will be available for this contest.