COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Malone University men's basketball team was back on the road Thursday night, and looking to rebound from a loss over the weekend.

The Pioneers (11-4, 6-2 G-MAC) jumped out to a 36-33 halftime lead at Ohio Dominican University, and then held off the Panthers (4-10, 2-5 G-MAC) in the second half to pick up a 75-70 win.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Malone opened up the game on a 7-2 run, getting baskets from Jaret Majestic and Levi Seiler as well as a three-pointer from Bo Myers to grab an early lead. 

Ohio Dominican answered right back with a run of their own however, and actually grabbed a 9-8 lead just before the first media timeout of the game. 

Both sides settled in after that, and the lead changed hands several times in the first half. 

The Pioneers shot 53.3% from the field, connecting on 16-30 of their shot attempts, but ODU countered by pouring in 40% of their field goal attempts to keep pace. 

After the opening twenty minutes of basketball Malone carried a 36-33 lead into the halftime break. 

When Bo Myers made good on his first three-point attempt of the second-half it put the Pioneers up 43-37, and pushed him across the 1,000 career point threshold. He becomes the second Pioneer player to reach that career milestone this season. Bryce Butler scored his 1,000th point in Malone's 102-84 win over the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown back on November 30. 

Unfortunately for the Pioneers, their offense struggled to build off of that six-point lead. 

Ohio Dominican fought right back and retook a 49-47 lead with 12:01 remaining to play in the game. 

Myers ended Malone's scoring drought with another triple, and then Elijah Hinton poured in the game's next five points to put the Pioneers up 55-49. 

MU took their largest lead of the night on a layup by Myers that put Malone ahead 59-52 with 8:52 left to play, but yet again the Panthers had an answer.

A 9-2 ODU run over the next four minutes allowed the Panthers to go up 63-61.

Bryce Butler tied the game at 63-63. A couple of possessions later Butler broke a 64-64 tie with a free throw and Malone never trailed again.  

A three-point play from Marcus Ernst made it a 69-65 game, and the Pioneers were ultimately able to ice away the 75-70 win from the free throw line down the stretch.


PIONEER POINTS

• Tonight's victory is the 100th career head coaching win for Casey Kaufman. He becomes just the third Pioneer coach to win at least 100 games during their career.
• Marcus Ernst scored a season-high 18 points and pulled down 9 rebounds for Malone. 
• Bo Myers was the only Pioneer player to reach double-double digits. He also finished with 18 points. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
Malone wraps up the weekend with another road game, this time at Cedarville University. Saturday's tip-off is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.