CANTON, Ohio -- The Malone University women's basketball team returned home on Wednesday evening for a Great Midwest Athletic Conference rematch with the Yellow Jackets of Cedarville University.

Malone (1-3, 1-3 G-MAC) came out of the gate hot in the first quarter to grab an early lead, but Cedarville (4-1, 4-1 G-MAC) settled in and pulled away from the Pioneers in the second half to pick up an 87-58 win.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Madison Hunter was a huge factor in the opening quarter as she was responsible for six of the first eight Malone points of the game. Alexis Hutchison drilled the first of two three-pointers on the night to give the Pioneers a four-point lead midway through the quarter.

A few minutes later the lead was stretched out to six on another bucket from Hutchison. Cedarville rallied back to make it a one point game, but a a 6-0 Malone run to close the quarter gave the Pioneers a 23-16 advantage after the first ten minutes of play. 

Unfortunately, the second quarter was all Cedarville. The Yellow Jackets outscored Malone 22-7 to carry a 38-30 lead to the halftime locker room.

The halftime adjustments helped the Pioneers offense in the third quarter, but seemingly each time Malone looked to make a run Cedarville had an answer. Helped by 16 points inside the paint the Yellow Jacket lead grew to 68-46 by the end of the third quarter. 

Cedarville continued to build on that advantage in the fourth quarter, as they continued to pull away en route to an 87-56 win.

PIONEER POINTS

• Alexis Hutchison led the Pioneers with a season-high 16 points. She was 7-14 from the field, including 2-3 from beyond the three-point line. She also pulled down a team-high 8 rebounds.

• Robin Campbell also hit a season-high with 14 points. She led the way with five assists on the offensive end of the floor.

• Madison Hunter scored 10 points to finish in double-digits for the fourth consecutive game.

• Malone was lights-out offensively in the first quarter, finishing 10-13 from the field. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
The Pioneers have one more game on their schedule before they break for the holidays. Malone will travel to Tiffin University on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off is slated for 1:00 p.m.