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The Malone University women's basketball team continued its postseason run on Saturday afternoon with a 61-53 triumph at Wayne State (MI) University in the semifinal round of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament.  With the victory, the fifth-seeded Pioneers improved to 21-9 overall and earned a spot in Sunday's GLIAC Championship Game where they will face second-seeded Northern Michigan University.  The Wildcats (21-7 overall) defeated third-seeded Michigan Tech University by a final tally of 59-54 in Saturday's other semifinal match-up.

The Championship Game will be held at Wayne State's Matthaei Center in Detroit, Michigan at 2:07 p.m. Sunday afternoon.  The Malone Sports Network will provide a radio broadcast on ESPN 990 AM and live streaming audio will be available at www.espn990.com.  Live video and stats will also be provided at http://livestats.prestosports.com/waynestate/

Although the Pioneers are in their first year of NCAA postseason eligibility, Malone has played like a seasoned and experienced squad in the GLIAC Tournament, using stingy defensive efforts to register road victories over the GLIAC South Division Regular-Season Champion Ashland University Eagles (in the quarterfinals on Wednesday) and GLIAC North Division Champion Warriors (in Saturday's semifinals).

Wayne State, which earned the opportunity to host the GLIAC women's tournament after notching a 17-5 record in regular-season conference games, led by as many as six points early in the first half of Saturday's contest.  Malone tied the game at 21-21 on a jumper by guard Deborah Simmers with a little over seven minutes remaining.

A Selana Reale three-pointer gave the Pioneers their first lead at 26-25 with a little over four minutes to play in the first half.  Another trifecta from Reale helped Malone close out the opening stanza on a 7-0 run and take a 33-27 advantage into the locker room at intermission.

The Pioneer lead grew to as many as 11 points at 45-34 early in the second half.  The top-seeded Warriors would remain within striking distance the rest of the way, eventually pulling to within 53-50 at the 3:51 mark of the final stanza.  However, a Simmers' jumper roughly a minute later halted a Malone scoring drought and pushed the Pioneer lead back to five at 55-50. 

The Warriors split a pair of free throws moments later to make the score 55-51 but that was as close as Wayne State would get.  A lay-up by guard Sydnee Penn and free throws by Simmers and Reale allowed the Pioneers to punch their ticket to the GLIAC Title game.

The Warriors entered the contest leading the GLIAC in both scoring and field-goal percentage but Malone held WSU to season lows in both categories with 53 points and a shooting mark of 36.2% (21 of 58).  Wayne State made 46.5% (20 of 43) of its attempts inside the three-point line but went just one of 15 from beyond the arc.

While Malone's final offensive numbers weren't dazzling, the Pioneers got the job done on the defensive end and matched the sizable Warrior line-up on the glass as each team finished with 39 rebounds.  Overall, Malone made 23 of 59 shots from the floor (39%), four of 11 (36.4%) three-pointers, and 11 of 15 (73.3%) foul shots.

Reale led the way for the Pioneers with 14 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.  Simmers added 13 points, while forwards Lindsy Snyder and Bri Libertore each contributed seven points.  Penn and forward Tara Schaffter both finished the afternoon with six points.

After battling foul trouble in the first half, Wayne State center Shareta Brown registered 13 of her game-high 16 points over the final 20 minutes.  She also totaled 12 rebounds and three blocks.  WSU forward Imari Redford added 11 points.

Championship Game Notes: Northern Michigan tallied a 77-68 home victory over Malone back on December 7th in the first and only meeting between the two teams this season…The Wildcats have won nine straight games and are led by All-GLIAC guards Alyssa Colla and Lauren Gruber…the winner of Sunday's game earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Midwest Region Tournament…the loser will hope to get an at-large bid by finishing among the Top 8 in the Midwest regional rankings.