Box Score
In a game played at Quickens Loan Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, the Malone University women's basketball team defeated visiting Grove City College (PA) by the score of 51-36 on Friday afternoon. The Pioneers' non-conference win snapped a three-game Malone losing streak and lifted the team's overall record to 6-4 (still 2-4 in GLIAC play).  Grove City dropped to 3-5 overall on the year.

In the wire-to-wire victory, Malone scored the first six points of the ball game and never looked back as the squad held leads of between two and 10 points in the first frame with the 25-15 halftime margin being the largest of the first half.

In the second stanza, Malone continued to hold a solid lead although Grove City did manage to trim the Pioneer edge to just 41-34 with four minutes remaining before Malone pulled away down the stretch for the convincing 15-point, 51-36 victory.

For Malone, guard Logan Pastor led all scorers in the contest with 16 points on the day as she hit seven of 11 from the floor, with three of those four misses coming from three-point range. Pastor also paced the squad in rebounds with nine.

Guards Selana Reale and Deborah Simmers each tallied eight points in the contest with Reale adding seven rebounds and a team-high four assists.  In addition, forward Sarah Bardall tossed in six points while guard Audrey Myers contributed seven rebounds to the Pioneer cause.

Leah Gibson led the Wolverines in scoring with 11 points while Ausinette Rodriguez followed with nine points. Gibson and Marie Carroll paced the team in rebounds with seven each.

Although the two teams were fairly even in field goal percentage, a big factor in the Malone win was that the Pioneers put up 20 more attempts than their opponent as Malone was 21 of 67 for 31.3% while Grove City was just 14 for 47 for 29.8%. Neither team fared well from long range as the Pioneers were one for 15 for 6.7% with the Wolverines also hitting only one, on 10 attempts, for 10.0%.

At the charity stripe, Malone converted eight of 14 tries for 57.1% while Grove City sank seven of eight for 87.5%.  The rebounding battle went to the Pioneers who held a slight 42-40 edge.

Malone will next compete in an away conference contest – at Ferris State University (MI) (6-3, 5-1 GLIAC) on Thursday, January 3rd at 8:00 p.m. Live stats, live video and live audio are available for the contest.

Facebook Photo Gallery from Friday's game (full gallery of high-quality action photos will be posted on www.malonepioneers.com in early January)