COLUMBUS - The Ohio Dominican Panthers men's basketball team worked to avenge the early season loss to the Malone Pioneers on Thursday (Feb. 9) night at Alumni Hall. 

The Panthers came out with a first half flurry to take down the Pioneers 81-73 for ODU's eighth win of the season. With the win, the Panthers have surpassed the win totals of the previous three seasons when the Panthers won 12 games in the 2019-20 season. 

Thursday's win against Malone snapped a seven-game losing streak to Malone, dating back to an 81-70 win on December 1, 2018. ODU also defeated Malone in Alumni Hall for the first time since January 23, 2016 in a 91-69 win. 

BOX SCORE NOTES

• Zach Szul (Waterville, Ohio) went off against the Pioneers for the second straight time as he went above the 30-point mark on Thursday night. Szul was nine-of-14 from the floor in the game, including five-of-six on three pointers. He tied his career-high with five threes, last set in January in Canton against the Pioneers. At the free throw line, Szul made nine of his ten attempts, with seven of the eight coming in the second half. He was tied for the team lead with eight rebounds and four assists. After scoring 15 points in the first half, Szul added 17 points in the final 20 minutes. 
• Sean Marks (Delaware, Ohio) had a perfect night shooting with four field goals and three triples to go with three rebounds. 
• Jarius Jones (Gahanna, Ohio) missed a double-double with ten points, eight rebounds and four assists. Jones scored eight of his ten points in the first half.
• Marcus Johnson (Columbus, Ohio) scored ten points in the game off the bench for his fifth game of double digits.
• Ethan Haynes (Florence, Kentucky) tallied seven points, five rebounds, two assists and one block in 33 minutes. Haynes had four field goals with one three pointer. 
• Keshawn Heard (Newark, Ohio) finished with nine points with a perfect three-of-three at the free throw line along with two assists and three blocks. Heard has four games of at least two blocks this season. 
• Ohio Dominican shot 49.2% from the floor in the game after going 50% in the first half. The Panthers ended 29-of-59 overall in the game. 
• For the eighth time this season, ODU made ten three pointers, notching ten-of-20 attempts for a 50% clip. 
• The Panthers went 13-of-17 at the free-throw line, going 76.5% at the stripe. 
• ODU beat the Pioneers in field goal percentage (49.2-41.5), three point percentage (50-25) and free throw percentage (76.5-57.9). 
• The last time ODU shot at least 50% beyond the arc was February 20, 2021 against Lake Erie. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Malone opened the game with a three pointer and gained an 8-4 lead two and a half minutes in. 
• Jones and Szul combined for five straight points, sandwiched around an offensive foul by Malone as ODU led 9-8 on Szul's three pointer. 
• Malone tied the game at nine on a free throw at the 16:34 mark before Ohio Dominican went on a 14-0 run, taking a 23-9 lead with 13:05 remaining in the first half. Five different players scored on the flurry that pushed the lead to 14. 
• Seven straight Malone points trimmed the ODU lead to 23-16 nearing nine minutes to go in the half. 
• Four points from Jones and three Heard free throws aided a 9-2 Panthers run as the lead grew back to 14 at 32-18 with 6:46 left. 
• Szul gave ODU a 17 point lead (41-24) with a layup late in the first half as they led Malone 41-26 at halftime, the largest halftime lead for the Panthers this season. 
• After the first two minutes of the game were back-and-forth to give ODU a 48-32 lead, Malone went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 48-42 with 15:35 left on the clock. 
• The Panthers gained a ten-point lead, 53-43, on a Johnson three-pointer at the 13:56 mark. A 10-2 Malone run over three and a half minutes left the Panthers with a 55-53 advantage with 10:14 to go. 
• Ohio Dominican scored 14 of the next 20 points, including threes from Haynes, Marks and Szul to regain a 69-59 stronghold on Malone with 4:03 left. 
• Malone got within four points but the Panthers kept the lead at bay, winning 81-73. 

UP NEXT

The Panthers will host the Ashland Eagles on Saturday (Feb. 11) afternoon at 3:00 PM. 

Contact: Tyler Stotsky
stotskyt@ohiodominican.edu