The Malone University women's basketball team outscored Ohio Valley University 19-8 in overtime to fend off the Fighting Scots, 85-74, in a scrappy Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) battle Thursday night in Vienna, West Virginia. Malone improved to 11-5 on the season and 5-1 in G-MAC play. Ohio Valley, which played much better than their record would indicate, fell to 2-10 overall and 1-8 in the conference.
 
Recap
Malone guard Holly Groff sank a three-pointer on the team's first shot of the game, Robin Campbell followed with a basket, and Mikayla Poole knocked down a three and a layup on back-to-back possessions to put Malone ahead 10-8 four minutes into the contest. The Pioneers then went cold, missing their next 10 shots, before Madison Hunter converted a reverse layup on the final possession of the quarter.
 
Malone entered the second quarter down 14-12 and saw its lead dip to four points on two separate occasions. Poole splashed another three ball to start the scoring in the frame, Sydney Wentling buried threes on consecutive possession midway through the quarter and Campbell added a late triple to close out the scoring while putting the Pioneers up 31-30 at intermission.
 
Despite never trailing again in the contest, Malone struggled to pull away from Ohio Valley, which had won just two of its last 70 games. The Fighting Scots had a response to nearly every Malone basket, including three early layups from Ellen Doyle and another trey from Wentling. The Pioneers made just two field goals, a pair of corner threes from Groff, in the final six minutes of the quarter and carried a 47-41 lead into the fourth.
 
Robin Campbell scored Malone's first six points of the final stanza, but the Pioneers led only 53-51 with five minutes to play. Over the next 90-plus seconds, Hunter connected on a pair of layups and another by freshman Emma Kallas moved the margin to 59-51.
 
The Scots drained three three-pointers over the next three minutes and whittled the deficit to 65-63 with just 15 seconds left. Following a foul, the Pioneers made just one of two free throw attempts, giving the Scots room to tie it on their final possession. After an OVU timeout, the hosts did just that, banking in a miracle three just before time expired.
 
The Pioneers never trailed in an anticlimactic extra session as Holly Groff made sure of it. She canned a trio of wing threes in first 2:30, making it a 76-68 game. Madison Hunter tacked on six late points and Ohio Valley missed four of its last five shots as the Pioneers escaped with the 85-74 victory.
 
Game Highlights
-The Pioneers shot 44.8% (13-29) from three-point range and 42.0% (29-69) overall.
-Ohio Valley converted 40.0% (8-20) from distance. Including 5-of-6 in the fourth quarter, and finished 29-for-67 (43.3%) from the floor overall.
-A game after nearly setting a school record with 31 free throws, the Pioneers made just 14-of-25 free throws, marking a season-low at 56%
-Ohio Valley held slim advantages in bench points (26-19), rebounds (45-42), second-chance points (11-7), and points in the paint (32-28).
-Malone outscored OVU 14-7 in the fastbreak and won the turnover battle 17-10
 
 Pioneer Individual Highlights
-Holly Groff, who scored just three points in the first half, finished with a team-high 22 points, including six field goals from beyond the three-point arc.
-Robin Campbell registered 17 points, eight rebounds, and a season-high eight assists.
-Sophomore forward Madison Hunter came off the bench to record a career-high 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting to go along with five rebounds, a block, and a steal
-Sydney Wentling did all of her damage from long range, netting four three-pointers to finish with 12 points in addition to three assists.
-Mikayla Poole tallied eight points, all in the first half.
-Ellen Doyle added seven points and seven rebounds.
 
Fighting Scot Individual Highlights
-Akiya Brown totaled a game-high 26 points.
-Kyrin Baklund, who made the game-tying three at the end of regulation, recorded 16 points.
-Imani Ward collected 10 points and a game-high 19 rebounds.
 
Up Next
Malone returns home to host Alderson Broaddus University this Saturday, January 18th at 1:00 pm.