The Malone University men's basketball team clinched its first-ever berth to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Tournament after picking up an 87-65 win over Ohio Valley University Wednesday night in Osborne Hall. The Pioneers overcame a slow first-half start before cruising to victory and improving their record to 11-11 overall on the season and 4-5 in the G-MAC.
 
The visitors had the hot hand early on, grabbing their largest lead of the game at 12-5 in the first eight minutes in which the Pioneers turned the ball over six times and missed seven of the first nine shot attempts. The Pioneers finally seized some momentum on a Christian Graves three-pointer, but Ohio Valley fought back and later took a 17-11 lead off another Malone turnover and a fastbreak layup.
 
Sensing that the Pioneers needed a spark, head coach Casey Kaufman went to his bench for some must-needed energy. Senior guard Nick Williams came through and ignited a 13-2 run, burying two threes, including a corner trey that gave Malone a 24-19 edge. Ohio Valley was able to tie it up just once more before Malone began to pull away. A 7-0 Malone run, highlighted by another Graves three, made it 31-24 before Malone closed out the first half up 39-32.
 
The Pioneers opened the second half with a 10-2 run, highlighted by three-balls from Mitchell Spotleson and Ty Jordan, that effectively put the game out of reach. Malone came out of half with fantastic ball movement and crisp passing that led to assists on each of its first nine field goals. The streak was snapped when Nate Sheppard grabbed an offensive rebound off of his own miss and threw down a thunderous slam dunk.
 
Sheppard added another monstrous jam a few possessions later off an alley-oop pass from Spotleson to put an emphatic seal on the home victory as Malone secured its first postseason berth since the 2013-14 season.
 
Game Highlights
-Malone turned the ball over just one time in the second half and finished with 10 in the game compared to 13 for Ohio Valley.
-The Pioneers finished the night 34-of-75 (45.3%) from the field while the visitors shot 26-of-71 (36.6%).
-Malone drained 11 three-pointers and collected 22 assists.
-The Pioneers also out-rebounded the Fighting Scots 50-39 and turned 18 offensive boards into 25 second chance points.
-Led by Williams, the Malone bench outscored OVU's 20-15.
 
Malone Individual Highlights
-Nate Sheppard led the Pioneers with 20 points to go along with seven rebounds.
-Mitchell Spotleson tossed in 14 points and secured 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. He also dished out four assists.
-Christian Graves was 4-of-9 from three-point range and finished the night with 14 points, four boards, three assists, and two steals.
-Ty Jordan totaled 11 points, six rebounds, six assists, and a pair of steals.
-Djuro Pantos added eight points, seven rebounds, and three assists.
-Nick Williams notched a career-high nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from distance
-Daylan Haynie added four points and four assists.
 
 Ohio Valley Individual Highlights
-Avery Williams led the Fighting Scots with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists.
-Kyle Davis and Aleksandar Djordjevic each registered 12 points in the loss.
 
Up Next:
Malone will look to avenge an earlier loss to Cedarville when they host the Yellow Jackets this Saturday, February 11th at 3:00 pm.