The Malone University men's basketball team opened up its 2018-19 season Friday night with an 81-70 loss to the University of Illinois Springfield on day one of the GLVC/G-MAC Crossover Classic.

Game Recap
The Pioneers, who downed the Prairie Stars by a 74-54 margin during last year's meeting between the two teams at Osborne Hall, opened up an early 7-2 lead in Friday's contest.

UIS answered back, scoring the next 11 points to grab a 13-7 edge before back-to-back three-pointers by Nate Sheppard and Jaret Majestic tied things up at 13-13.  After trading buckets back and forth with Malone over the next few minutes, the Prairie Stars closed out the first half on an 11-4 run to take a 35-25 lead into the locker room at intermission.

Illinois Springfield's lead would then grow to as many as 18 points midway through the second half before Malone slowly began to chip away, twice cutting the deficit to seven points in the final three minutes – the first time at 71-64 on a lay-up by Bryce Butler and the second on a three-pointer by Ben Evans with 25 seconds to go.  Unfortunately, the seven-point margin was as close as the Pioneers would get as the Prairie Stars hit their final four free throws on the night to preserve the Midwest Region victory.

Game Highlights
-After hitting just 8 of 28 (28.57%) shot attempts in the first half, Malone converted on 15 of 33 (45.45%) field goals over the final 20 minutes, ending the game at 37.7% overall
-Malone hit a total of 11 three-pointers (11 of 32) and sank 13 of 14 free throws
-Illinois Springfield shot 44.4% (24 of 54) from the field, 40.9% (nine of 22) from deep and 85.7% (24 of 28) from the foul line
-The Prairie Stars held a slim 37-34 advantage in total rebounds, blocked six shots and turned 11 steals into 18 fast-break points

Malone Individual Highlights
- Evans scored a career-high 22 points in the contest, surpassing his previous career best of 13 points.  The senior knocked down nine of 13 shots attempts, including four of seven three-pointers.  He also grabbed six rebounds
- Sheppard added 18 points and six rebounds
-Guard Daylan Haynie registered 13 points, four assists and three boards
- Butler posted nine points, three assists and three steals
-Forward Marcus Ernst grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and blocked two shots

Illinois Springfield Individual Highlights
-Gilwan Nelson tossed in 22 points to go with seven rebounds, three assists and three steals
-Peyton Allen notched 16 points, six rebounds and three assists
-Daniel Soetan came off the bench to contribute 16 points, eight boards and four blocks
 
Up Next:
Malone will wrap up play at the G-MAC/GLVC Challenge with a 2:00 p.m. ET contest against the University of Southern Indiana.