CANTON, Ohio – After falling behind by 17 in the first half, Ohio Dominican's women's basketball team roared back to take its third-straight victory, a 61-59 decision over host Malone Saturday in GLIAC play at Osborne Hall.

The Panthers improved to 5-0 in games decided by two points or less and notched their second three-game winning streak of the season.

ODU (8-14, 5-14 GLIAC) led by as much as 10, 54-44, with 5:48 to play, then sweated out some anxious moments down the stretch as the Pioneers (13-10, 9-10 GLIAC) went on a 12-0 run to re-take the lead, 56-54, with less than three minutes left. The Pioneers sank two three-pointers and also had a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays during that stretch.

Needing a basket, junior guard Mykeila Mast (Millersburg, Ohio) inbounded with a deep lob to freshman Melissa Scherpenberg (Cincinnati, Ohio), who finished with a layup to knot the game with 1:38 to play.

A Pioneer three rattled out, and sophomore guard Kacee Hockenberry (Haviland, Ohio) banked in a leaning jumper from left of the paint to put ODU back in front, 58-56, with 58 seconds left.

Malone hit one of two free throws to get back within a point, and after a Panther turnover, had a chance to re-take the lead. But a short jumper missed, and junior Katelyn Stuckey (Millersburg, Ohio) pulled down the rebound and was fouled with 12.1 seconds left.

Stuckey knocked down both free throws, giving the Panthers a 60-57 lead. Malone drove the length of the floor and made a layup with 5.1 seconds, and Hockenberry made one free throw with three ticks left.

The Pioneers tried to throw the ball down the floor, but Scherpenberg knocked it out of bounds with 0.3 seconds left, and the freshman then deflected the next inbounds pass as well as time expired.

Hockenberry scored a game-high 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting and also had four steals. Stuckey scored 15 points, freshman forward Alex Hallenbeck (St. Johns, Mich.) had 12 and Scherpenberg finished with 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

ODU held Malone to just 33.3 percent shooting in the second half and had a 42-25 rebounding advantage. After grabbing 31 offensive boards against Walsh on Thursday, the Panthers pulled down 18 more on Saturday.

In the first half, ODU grabbed an early 5-4 lead, but Malone took control from that point, using a 23-5 run to go in front 27-10 just over 10 minutes into the game. The Panthers tallied the game's next seven points, with Mast lining up a deep three from the left side, to cut the deficit to 27-17 with 6:45 to play.

 After a Malone bucket, ODU then scored the next six points, with Hockenberry beating the shot clock on a turnaround jumper from the top of the key and Scherpenberg hitting two free throws. Hockenberry then drilled a pair of three-pointers in the final 50 seconds of the half to cut the score to 33-29 at the half.

The Panthers shot 47.6 percent (10-of-21) from the field in the half but committed 14 turnovers, while Malone finished 13-of-28 (46.4 percent) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.

Hallenbeck scored five straight points in the opening minute of second half, and Hockenberry hit a jumper in the paint as the Panthers took a 36-33 lead. The lead stretched to 42-35 as Stuckey made back-to-back layups and freshman Rachael Torey (Sterling Heights, Mich.) sank a pair of free throws at the 13:12 mark.

Malone drew within 44-42, but the Panthers went to work inside, scoring in the paint on layups by Scherpenberg, Stuckey and Hallenbeck to grab a 49-42 lead, and Hallenbeck would follow a Scherpenberg missed free throw with a putback layup to stretch the lead to 54-44, setting up the game's final flurry.

For the game, Ohio Dominican shot 44.9 percent (22-of-49) and survived despite shooting just 13-of-21 at the free throw line (61.9 percent) and committing 24 turnovers, which turned into 27 Malone points.

The 17-point comeback was the largest since Ohio Dominican overcame a 22-point deficit against Grand Valley on Dec. 1, 2011 in a 76-58 win in Alumni Hall.

The Panthers return to action with a 7:30 p.m. tip at Ashland, the nation's top-ranked team, on Thursday.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu