Central Ohio Today

In their final game before the Christmas holidays, the Malone University women's basketball team had a non-conference match up with Ohio Christian University in Osborne Hall.

The Pioneers dominated as they kept the Trailblazers to single-digit points in three of the four quarters, and only allowed 11 points in the third quarter, while Malone's offense exploded for 92 total points.

It's the women's basketball team's largest margin of victory in a decade when they defeated the University of Akron – Wayne College on November 20, 2012 by a final of 113-29 in Osborne Hall.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Final Score: Malone University 92 – Ohio Christian University 32
• Malone (8-4, 4-2 G-MAC) | Ohio Christian (4-9, 2-3 RSC)
• Location: Canton, Ohio | Osborne Hall

THE GAME

Neither team scored on their opening possessions, but Emma Kallas started the scoring with back to back layups on fastbreaks after Alexis Hutchison sent the ball her way. The Pioneers would only continue to build on that lead, and never let Ohio Christian have the advantage on the scoreboard.

Hutchison had her first points of the night with a three-pointer with 1:37 left in the opening period to give Malone their first double-digit lead of the game. The Pioneers allowed the Trailblazer just nine points in the first quarter as Malone tallied eight defensive rebounds and forced five turnovers.

The second quarter started with the Pioneers scoring 13 unanswered. The Trailblazers had their first bucket with the clock reading 6:43. Brinn Hunt got Malone started a 10-0 run with her first points of the game as she sank one from deep.

The first half ended after Kallas got another layup. The Pioneers headed to the locker room with a 34-point lead, having allowed OCU just four points in the second quarter – both of them coming from layups for the Trailblazers.

In the first half, the Pioneers had pulled down 20 defensive rebounds and grabbed six steals. The second quarter was Malone's highest scoring quarter of the game with 30 points.

A minute into the third quarter, Hutchison started off the scoring with a layup and began another Malone run of 10 unanswered points.

Coming out of the timeout, Malone outscored the Trailblazers 11-3 beginning with Brianna Fitzgerald on a fastbreak layup and ending with a Kallas layup. This gave Malone a 68-20 lead on the scoreboard. The quarter finished with two OCU layups.

The first Pioneer possession of the final quarter saw Erin Kaufman scoring another layup for the home team. Fitzgerald sank her first three-pointer of the season with 4:43 to go and gave Malone their first 50+ point lead of the day.

Brooklyn Troyer scored seven points in the fourth quarter to send her over the double-digit mark, her final two coming from a pair of free-throws.

Anna Krupa had the final two Malone scores with two layups within 30 seconds of each other. This gave the Pioneers their largest lead of the night at 62 before Ohio Christian got one final layup in the game.

The Pioneers had their largest margin of victory since 2012, as they finished the game at 92-32.

THE DETAILS

• Emma Kallas led the Pioneers with 18 points and 8 rebounds. She also added a block and a steal to the team effort.
• Erin Kaufman contributed 15 points, 8 rebounds (including a team high 5 offensive rebounds), and 2 steals. Alexis Hutchison had 14 points, 7 rebounds, and a game-high 7 assists. Brinn Hunt added 12 points of her own.
• Brooklyn Troyer had her first career double-double with her 11 points and 11 rebounds.
• Anna Krupa and Brianna Fitzgerald each scored a career-high 7 points. Kyli Horn had a career-high four steals. Horn and Nataley Armstrong each contributed four points to help mark that every Pioneer found the basket more than once.
• As a team, the Pioneers made 37 of their 64 attempts – both of which are team season-highs. The 50 total rebounds are also a season-high for Malone – it also the most amount of rebounds since the February 2019 matchup against Ohio Valley University when they pulled down 52.
• The sixty-point victory is the largest margin of victory for the women's basketball program since November of 2012 when the Pioneers had an 84 point victory.

WHAT'S NEXT

Women's basketball will take a break to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Their next game will be their final game of the 2022 portion of their season as they welcome Wilberforce University for a non-conference matchup. Tip-off on Friday December 30th is set for 1:00 p.m.

Original source can be found here