COLUMBUS, Oh. -- The Malone University women's basketball team continued their road stint with a trip to Columbus on Thursday evening to face Ohio Dominican University. 

Malone (8-6, 4-4 G-MAC) jumped out to a 31-30 lead at halftime, but the Panthers (3-12, 3-6 G-MAC) were able to fight back to gain a small lead for the majority of the third quarter. 

However, the Pioneers were able to pull away in the fourth quarter to grab their eight win. 

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Malone opened up the scoring with back-to-back baskets by Emma Kallas and Holly Groff. It took three minutes and eight seconds for Ohio Dominican to score their first points of the game. 

An Emma Kallas layup gave the Pioneers an 19-8 advantage, their first double digit lead of the night.

The Panthers never backed down and ended up cutting Malone's lead down to 23-22.

Right before the halftime buzzer went off, Ohio Dominican hit a jumper at the last second to head into the locker room with a 30-31 deficit. 

Unfortunately, the Panthers came out hot in the second half and ended up gaining their first lead of the night.

Ohio Dominican continued to take control of the third quarter, and they expanded their lead to 45-40 after a three-pointer.

However, Groff hit a shot from downtown to put the Pioneers back up 47-45.

The Panthers scored on their next trip down the court to even up the game at 47-47, but Malone quickly answered with a buzzer-beater layup by Alexis Hutchison.

The Pioneers continued to grow their advantage, and a triple by Groff made it a 67-54 game, Malone's largest lead of the game.

Although, Ohio Dominican did not give up. They ended up going on a 9-0 run to diminish Malone's lead down to 67-63.

After a layup by Kallas and some free throws by Groff and Robin Campbell, the Pioneers were able to secure a 72-66 win.


PIONEER POINTS

• Holly Groff led all scorers with 16 points. She also pulled down a season-high six rebounds and dished out four assists.
• Robin Campbell finished with 12 points and distributed a team-high eight assists. She also committed zero turnover during the game. 
• Kelsey Swihart (12), Emma Kallas (11), and Alexis Hutchison (10) rounded out the double-digit scorers for Malone. Swihart grabbed a career-high three steals.
• The Pioneers dominated in every statistical category in the matchup. Malone also outrebounded the Panthers 31-22. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
Malone will finish their short road stint on Saturday when then travel to Cedarville University. The January 15th tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.