Box Score

The Malone University men's basketball team fell just short in a home GLIAC contest to Lake Superior State University (MI) in Osborne Hall Thursday night.  With the loss, the Pioneers dropped to 3-3 overall on the season and to 1-2 in GLIAC play while the Lakers improved to 8-1 overall and to 2-1 in the GLIAC.

While the visitors held a lead for nearly all the first half, the hosts were never far behind, trailing by five points or less before the Lakers held just a 36-33 advantage at the intermission.

The Pioneers came out of the gate strongly to start the second half and went on an impressive 20-6 run to open up an 11-point, 53-42 lead with 14:55 left in the contest.  But the Lakers then started chipping away at the Malone lead over the next eight minutes and knotted the game up at 62-62 with just 6:50 remaining.  After each team jumped ahead by no more than three points over the next four minutes, the game was still tied at 69-all with 1:58 left before the visitors jumped out to a 74-69 edge with 1:16 remaining. 

Malone stayed within striking distance down the stretch and closed its deficit to 78-76 on a driving layup by point guard Isiah Elliott with 12 seconds left.  But the Lakers hit three of their four free throw attempts during that last span to seal their four-point 81-77 victory.

Overall shooting percentages were as close as the game would state as LSSU sank 26 of 51 attempts for 51.0% while the Pioneers hit 28 of 55 for 50.9%.  Malone held the slight edge in three-point percentage, connecting on 47.4% (9-19) to the Lakers' 44.4% (8-18).  The visitors held the decisive advantage at the line though, converting 21 of 25 for 84.0% while Malone netted 12 of 18 for 66.7%.  LSSU also posted a 31-24 advantage on the boards.

For Malone, Elliott poured in a game-high 27 points and added a team-best four assists, three steals and a block while forward Cory Veldhuizen was right behind with 26 points (10-16 FG, 3-4 3FG) to go along with four rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.  In addition, guard Christian Graves tallied nine points on the night after hitting three of five three-point attempts. Guard Che Richardson paced the team in rebounds with eight while center Daniel Wise, who had six points, grabbed six boards on the evening.

For LSSU, Alex Williams led the way with 26 points followed by Cameron Metz who tossed in 19 points.  Williams and Metz each paced the squad in rebounds with six apiece.

Malone will be right back in action with another home GLIAC contest on Saturday as the squad hosts Northwood University (MI), which currently has a record of 7-2 (3-0 GLIAC), in a 3:00 p.m. contest.  Live stats will be available for the game.