CANTON -- On Thursday night, for the first time in over three weeks, the Malone University men's basketball team was back at home. 

The Pioneers welcomed the Hillsdale College Chargers to town for a matchup featuring two of the top teams in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). 

Malone (16-5, 11-3 G-MAC) built up a double-digit halftime lead, and outscored the Chargers (15-6, 10-5 G-MAC) in the second-half to run away with the 85-68 win. 

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Fresh off his nod as the NCCAA Player of the Week, Marcus Ernst opened up the scoring on the night. 

Hillsdale responded with a three-pointer on the other end of the floor, but once Bryce Butler's jumper found the bottom of the net to put Malone back on top 4-3, the Pioneers never trailed again the rest of the game. 

The two sides traded scores for the major portions of the opening half, but as the halftime break drew near MU started to really gain control of the contest. 

A pair of Bo Myers' free throws put the Pioneers ahead 26-20 with just over eight minutes to play in the half. Malone's defense came away with a stop on the ensuing Hillsdale possession, and Ernst converted on a jumpshot inside of the paint on the other end to make it a 28-20 game. 

Ernst went on to score the next three points of the ballgame to give Malone their first double-digit lead of the night. 

The Pioneer advantage swelled to as many as sixteen points on a Levi Seiler triple inside of the last two minutes. That trey was part of the 15 first-half points that Seiler poured in for Malone. 

However, the Chargers rallied back, and Hillsdale was able to cut it down to a 46-35 game at halftime. 

Malone opened up the second-half with a 10-4 run that was capped off by another three-point basket from Seiler to give MU their largest lead of the night at 56-39. 

It took less than two minutes of game action for the Chargers to trim Malone's advantage back down to single digits thanks to a 10-2 run of their own. 

Butler stopped the bleeding momentarily with a two-point bucket to make it 60-49 in favor of the Pioneers with 11:57 remaining in the contest. 

Hillsdale continued their comeback fight though. Just two minutes later the Chargers were within just five points. 

A layup by Ernst and four straight points from Justin Miller pushed Malone's lead back out to eleven, and Hillsdale never really threatened again down the stretch. 

The Pioneers held the Chargers scoreless over the final 2:20 of the game, and Butler scored ten points himself inside of the last 1:44 to help Malone pull away for the 85-68 win.

PIONEER POINTS

• Levi Seiler led all scorers with a season-high 20 points. He was 7-11 from the field, including 3-5 from three-point range. 
• Marcus Ernst added 18 points, and a game-high 15 rebounds. Those boards allowed him to eclipse the 1,000 rebound mark for his Malone career. He is now just one of three players in all of Malone history to score at least 1,000 points and pull down at least 1,000 rebounds during their Pioneer career. 
• Bryce Butler helped close out the win with 18 points of his own. He continues to be Malone's leading scorer this season, averaging 17.3 points per game.
• Bo Myers rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Pioneers with 13 points.
• Tonight's victory was the seventeenth home win in a row for Malone dating back to last season. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
The Pioneers begin their final road swing of the 2021-22 regular season. Malone travels to the University of Findlay on Saturday. Tip-off is slated for 3:00 p.m.