CANTON – Malone University's women's basketball team will continue their final home stand with a game against Cedarville University on Thursday evening. 

Matchup: Malone University Pioneers (13-11, 9-9 G-MAC) vs Cedarville University (17-9, 12-8 G-MAC)
Where: Canton, Ohio | Osborne Hall
When: Thursday, February 24 | 5:30 p.m.
Tickets: Malone University Ticket Office 
Live Video Stream: Great Midwest Digital Network
Live Stats: Great Midwest Digital Network

Last Time Out
Malone welcomed Tiffin into Osborne Hall on Tuesday night, the second time the two teams met within a week. While Tiffin won the matchup last week, Malone came out on top with the 74-59 victory to split the season series with the Dragons.

The Pioneers would take a five point lead to the halftime locker room after Holly Groff scored six of her own unanswered points to end the first half. Malone would not loose their lead for the rest of the game.

Groff led all scorers as she surpassed the twenty point mark with her 21 points. Alexis Hutchison score 16 points as she shot 5-10 from the field and 4-6 from the free-throw line. She also pulled down 8 rebounds and tied Groff with five assists each.

Robin Campbell rounded out the Pioneers' double-digit scorers with her own 11 points.

As a team, Malone overpowered Tiffin, scoring 14-0 with bench players and 15-2 on fastbreaks. The Pioneers slightly outscored the Dragons on points off turnovers 16-10 and points scored in the paint at 42-40.

Entering Thursday's game,  both Campbell and Groff are in the top ten of all-time scoring in Malone history with Groff at 6th with 1575 and Campbell at 10th with 1384. 

Hardwood Series
Thursday's game will be the 54th all-time meeting between the Yellow Jackets and the Pioneers. Cedarville holds a strong 38-15 series lead and has won the last four match ups.

Earlier this season, when the two teams tipped off in Cedarville, the Yellow Jackets took a six point lead to halftime and held off the Pioneers in the second half to win 72-69. Emma Kallas had brought the Pioneers within a point with twelve seconds, but Cedarville sank two free throws to secure the victory.

Robin Campbell and Alexis Hutchison led the Pioneers with 16 and 15 points respectively. Campbell dished out a team-high seven assists while Hutchison grabbed a team-high three steals. Freshman Brooklyn Troyer snatched a career-high and game-high nine rebounds.

The last win for the Pioneers over the Yellow Jackets came in the G-MAC Quarterfinal game in the 2019-2020 season. Malone was able to advance to the next round of the postseason tournament with an 83-73 victory.

Knowing Your Opponent
Cedarville University comes into Osborne Hall after facing Ohio Dominican in back-to-back games on February 16th and February 19th. In both contests, the Yellow Jackets came out victorious.

Wednesday's game went into overtime, but in the process, all five Yellow Jacket starters reached double-digit scoring. Paige Garr got a team-high 19 points (eight of which were in the overtime period) and tied Lexi Moore for 8 rebounds each. Cedarville outscored the Panthers 50-30 on points under the basket.

On Saturday, Cedarville came away with a victory on their Senior Day in part from Lydia Sweeney's 20 points and seniors Emily Chapman and Allison Mader scoring double-digits as well.

The Yellow Jackets are averaging 70.3 points per game, just above Malone who is scoring 70.0, the difference is that Cedarville has held their opponents to 63.8 points while Malone is allowing opponents 69.4 points per game. But Malone is shooting 47% from the field, while Cedarville is at 41.4%.

Looking Ahead
Malone will wrap up the regular season and celebrate Senior Day on Saturday as they host the Panthers of Ohio Dominican.