COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Dominican's men's basketball team dropped a close G-MAC contest with Malone by a final score of 73-66 Saturday afternoon in Alumni Hall.

A balanced scoring attack saw four Panthers in double figures led by senior Hasan Varence (Queens, New York) scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. Fellow senior Michael Scott (Hebron, Ky.) stuffed the stat sheet scoring 13 points, a season-high six rebounds and five assists. Sophomore Arius Jones (Lansing, Mich.) posted a career-high 13 points and Sam Hickey (Toledo, Ohio) had 11 points.

The Panthers saw themselves fall behind early 16-4 before coming back on the back of an 8-0 run capped by a Varence three with 13:04 remaining in the first half. Malone led the entire first half with their largest lead of 12 early and maintained at least a five-point edge throughout the rest of the half taking a 44-39 lead into the break.

Malone shot 58% (18-for-31) in the first half while the Panthers also shot well shooting 48% (15-for-31).

Out of the break, ODU cut their deficit to one at 44-43 on a Matt King (Mason, Ohio) jumper before a 6-0 Pioneer run got their lead back to seven at 50-43 with 16:47 to play in the second half.

With 14:06 to play in the second half, a Scott layup cut the Panther deficit to three at 52-49 with the Pioneers once again not allowing the Panthers to get over the hump regaining an eight point edge at 61-53 with 8:10 to play.

An old-fashioned three point play from Hickey with 4:43 to play saw the Panthers trailing 65-61 but a pair of jumpers from Malone extended their lead back to six at 69-63 with 1:55 to play. Malone finished the contest making all four of their free throw attempts late to cap the win.

Malone led the entire game outside of the first 40 second of the game when ODU led 2-0.

The Pioneers ended up shooting 47.5% from the floor (28-for-59) and 44.4% from three (8-for-18) while ODU finished shooting just 42.2% (27-for-64) and 34.6% from three (9-for-26).

The Panthers now fall to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in the conference while Malone advances to 6-5 overall and 1-1 in the conference. ODU will next host Walsh Monday evening in Alumni Hall with tip set for 5:30 p.m.