The Malone University men's basketball team lost a home contest to GLIAC opponent Hillsdale College (MI) by the score of 76-64 in Malone's Osborne Hall Sunday afternoon.

With the loss, the Pioneers dropped to 3-9 overall and to 1-5 in the GLIAC while the Chargers improved to 7-3 and 5-1 in GLIAC play.

Malone jumped out to a few slight leads early in the contest, the last of which came at 13-12 with 13:47 remaining in the period.  The visitors opened up an eight-point edge before the Pioneers cut the deficit to five points, trailing 30-25 at halftime.

Although Malone never took the lead back in the final half, the Pioneers did stay within striking distance for all but the final minute of play as, on several occasions, the Chargers opened up advantages of seven and six points before Malone cut the deficit to just one point, at 59-58, with just over five minutes left in the contest.

The hosts were still in the hunt with just over two minutes left, trailing just 68-62, before Hillsdale tallied eight of the game's final ten points to post the 76-64 victory.

An impressive 60.5% field goal percentage by the Chargers proved key in their win as did the free throw differential as Hillsdale went 20 of 22 at the line while Malone netted just seven of 12.

For Malone, guard Ben Haraway tossed in a team-best 22 points while contributing three rebounds as well. Center Brian Stone also tallied double digits as he posted 12 points (5-8 FG, 2-4 FT).  In addition, guard Christian Graves recorded nine points and guard Stephen O'Daniel III scored eight points.  Forward Mitch Spotleson led the Pioneers in rebounds with five.

For Hillsdale, Kyle Cooper accounted for a game-high 29 points and also paced the team in rebounds with 11.

Malone will next compete in an away conference contest at Ferris State University (MI) (10-2, 6-0 GLIAC) on Thursday at 8:00 p.m.  Live stats will be available.