The Malone University men's basketball team begins Great Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament play this Thursday night. The fourth-seeded Pioneers will face Ohio Dominican University, who is seeded fifth, at 8:30 p.m. in the quarterfinal round. The G-MAC tournament will run three days straight at the University of Findlay's Croy Gymnasium with the semi-finals on Friday and the championship game on Saturday. 

The winner of Thursday's Malone-ODU match-up will advance to the semifinals to face the winner of the quarterfinal-round contest between top-seeded Findlay and the eighth seed, Kentucky Wesleyan College.

The Pioneers enter Thursday's contest with a 19-9 overall record.  The 19 victories mark Malone's highest win total since 2007-08 when Hal Smith led the squad to a 21-10 mark in his final season as head coach.

GameDay

3/1 Malone vs. Ohio Dominican - 8:30pm

Live Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/greatmidwest/

Tournament bracket, Ticket Information and other tournament details can be found at http://greatmidwestsports.com/sports/2017/6/28/2018MBasketballChampionship.aspx

Series History

The Pioneers are 60-24 all-time against Ohio Dominican. The two teams faced off just once this season, with the Pioneers coming out on top 66-59. Nate Sheppard and Ty Jordan each scored 18 points in the first matchup, with Mitchell Spotleson adding 15 for the Pioneers. Hasan Varence led Ohio Dominican with 19 points, with Shemar Waugh adding in 12.
 

Last Year At The G-MAC Tournament

The Pioneers were seeded fourth among six teams in last year's Great Midwest Tournament and advanced to the semifinals after defeating fifth-seeded Cedarville University by a final score of 75-69.  Malone then fell to the tournament's host, NCAA Div. II #7 Kentucky Wesleyan College, in the semifinal round

Record: 19-9 (12-8 G-MAC)

• Although the Pioneers finished the regular season with two straight losses, Malone never dropped more than two games in a row throughout the regular season. After the last time that Malone lost two straight games, the team won ten out of their next eleven games.

• Ty Jordan is just 24 points from reaching 1,000 points in his Malone career. He has scored 976 points in 55 career games. His 17.7 points per game is ninth best in Malone history.

• The Pioneers finished the regular season with the highest three-point percentage in the conference, making 38.6% of their attempts.

• Malone finished second in assists to Findlay with 16.4 assists per game. The Pioneers also trail Findlay in assist-to-turnover ratio.

• The Pioneers grabbed 812 defensive rebounds, the most of any team in the conference. Their 29.0 defensive rebounds per game is tied for second most in the conference with Ohio Dominican. The two teams trail Walsh's 29.1 defensive rebounds per game.

• Djuro Pantos and Mitchell Spotleson are both in the top ten in rebounds in the conference. Pantos is averaging 7.0 rebounds per game and Spotleson is averaging 6.9 rebounds per game.

Ohio Dominican Team Notes Schedule | Roster | Statistics

Record: 17-10 (12-8)

• The Panthers finished the regular season on a five-game winning streaking, winning nine out of their final ten games of the regular season. Three of those nine wins came in overtime.

• Ohio Dominican ended the regular season with a +7.9 scoring margin. Malone finished the regular season with a +7.8 scoring margin.

• The Panthers held their opponents to a 40.7% field-goal percentage, the second best in the conference. They hold players to 31.2% from three, the best in the conference.

• Hasan Varence is third in the conference in rebounds. He averages 9.7 rebounds per game. He is fifth in the conference in field-goal percentage, shooting 49.5% from the field.

• Ronnie Williams is shooting 42.6% from the three-point line, the third best percentage from three in the conference.