OWENSBORO, Ky. - The Malone University men's basketball team was defeated by Kentucky Wesleyan College on Thursday night by a score of 73-56. The Pioneers are now 13-10 and hold a 6-9 mark inside the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). The win makes Kentucky Wesleyan 15-9 overall and 9-7 in conference action.
 
A change in the starting lineup saw freshman forward Austin Niekamp make the first start of his career. The Panthers knocked down a couple of triples in the opening minutes, but a red-hot offense for the Pioneers put them in front 11-8 after five minutes. Malone was 4-of-5 from the field to begin the game with four points apiece by Josiah Pierre and Joey DeGeorge.
 
The Pioneers opened up a 17-8 advantage after Nic Williams and Logan Forbes made their first field goals of the night. Kentucky Wesleyan creeped their way back and by the under-8 break, the Panthers had gotten back to within four at 19-15. It ended up being a 15-2 run that featured a scoreless streak of over seven minutes for Malone. Back-to-back three's further increased Kentucky Wesleyan's lead to 29-21 with two minutes left in the first half.
 
DeGeorge found Niekamp inside for a field goal, the first in nine minutes of game time, but the Panthers responded with five straight points to end the first half with a 34-23. Kentucky Wesleyan was 13-of-26 (50.0%) from the field and 8-of-15 (53.3%) from distance.
 
Jake Bruns nailed a three early in the second half, but the Panthers continued to dominate and pushed the lead to 16 at 42-26. Williams and Pierre combined for 10 points evenly in the middle stages of the half to get the deficit down to 11 with 8:29 on the clock, but that was as close as the Pioneers got. Kentucky Wesleyan eventually went up 20 late in the period at 69-49 and got to the final score of 73-56.
 
The Panthers scored 10 more points than Malone off of turnovers (12-2). The Pioneers had 12 miscues compared to five for Kentucky Wesleyan. The Panthers had six blocked shots defensively and kept Malone to 37.5% (21-for-56) from the field.
 
Pierre (15 points) and Niekamp (13 points) were double-digit scorers for the team. Forbes, Niekamp and Pierre shared the lead with six rebounds each. Williams was credited with five of the team's ten assists.
 
The Pioneers travel to Thomas More University for another G-MAC game on Saturday, February 14 beginning at 3:00 P.M.