The Malone University women's basketball team fell to Tiffin University 72-64 Thursday night in Osborne Hall.

The Dragons opened up a 35-19 advantage after two quarters, holding Malone to just 8-of-31 (25.8%) shooting and outrebounding the Pioneers 25-12. Tiffin senior forward Bre Nauman, the reigning GLIAC South Player of the Week, collected 10 rebounds in the first half. The 19 points for the Pioneers tied their lowest first-half scoring output of the season.

Trailing by as many as 17 early in the second half, the Malone offense heated up, reeling  off 26 points in the third quarter and cutting the Tiffin lead to 56-45. But the Dragons, who finished 11-of-15 (73.3%) from three-point range in the game, used five third-quarter treys to keep their distance.

The Dragons drained another triple to open the scoring in the final frame before a 15-5 Malone run capped off by a Rachel Goddard three-pointer made it 64-60 Tiffin with 45 seconds remaining. Forced to foul down the stretch, the Pioneers never got any closer as the Dragons, who came in ranked 2nd in the nation in free-throw shooting (80.4%), nailed 8-of-10 over the final seconds to come away with the 72-64 victory.

• Junior guard Rachel Goddard scored a season-high 20 points and followed up her 13-assist effort against Ashland with 6 more assists tonight
• Bri Libertore tallied 14 points and team-high 7 rebounds...the senior forward netted her first-career three pointer in the loss
• After a slow start, freshman Chrissie Vaughan scored 13 points in the second half to go along with 5 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals
• Junior guard Mackenzie Storlie recorded 3 steals in 14 minutes off the bench

• Nauman registered her 4th straight double-double after scoring 13 points and hauling a game-high 15 rebounds
• Allie Miller scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, pulled in 8 boards, and picked up 4 assists in the win
• Freshman sharp-shooter Ali Schirmer made her first five three-point attempts en route to a career-high 20 points

• Tiffin Head Coach Jason Mishler's first trip to Malone, after leading the Pioneers for the previous four seasons, resulted in the Dragons' 5th win of the year
• The Dragons' 11 three pointers was a season high and their 73.3% shooting from behind the arc was the highest single-game percentage of any team in NCAA DII this season
• Tiffin held a commanding 44-25 rebounding edge
• Malone recorded 10 steals and forced Tiffin into 18 turnovers while committing just six of their own
• The Pioneers shot 51.4% (18-35) from the field and 42.9% (6-14) from three in the second half
• After starting the year 5-1 at home, the Pioneers have dropped three straight games at Osborne Hall

• The Pioneers (5-11, 2-9 GLIAC) will meet Ohio Dominican University this Saturday, January 23rd for a 1:00 pm road matchup with the (13-4, 8-3 GLIAC) Panthers. Preview notes are available here.