HILLSDALE, Mich. – A second half surge for No. 4 Malone led to a wave of unrecoverable momentum as the Pioneers finished a perfect Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship tournament run on Saturday, 77-59, vs. No. 6 Cedarville.
The Pioneers defeated No. 5 Walsh in Tuesday’s quarterfinals before taking down top seed Hillsdale last night in the semifinals. Malone proved it had plenty in the tank for an exciting conclusion to the conference tournament while pushing its win streak to 10 straight.
It represents Malone’s first men’s basketball title since joining the Great Midwest as a full member in 2016-17. It also will be the first national tournament appearance for head coach Casey Kaufman and his program.
The Great Midwest may be positioned well to have as many as (3) teams in the NCAA Atlantic Regional. Hillsdale and Findlay were both eliminated from the tournament semifinals on Friday but could earn at-large selections as the national committee reviews their body of work in a very difficult season to complete games.
The NCAA Selection Show will ultimately reveal the field of 48 teams in the men’s bracket on Sunday at 10:30 pm ET streamed on NCAA.com. Malone earned the conference’s AQ spot
The Pioneers opened the game with a scoring blitz with five quick points from Bo Myers and a three from the corner by Jaret Majestic that forced Cedarville to take a timeout trailing 8-2.
Carrying over last night’s energy on the offensive glass and general hustle, senior Marcus Ernst went diving for a 50-50 ball at midcourt and Bryce Butler finished off a three-point play on the other end for an 11-4 edge.
Shortly after, Cedarville’s Branden Maughmer ignited his own bench with a vicious slam down the lane with the left hand plus the foul. Ernst would later pay back the favor by rocking the rim while meeting Maughmer’s block attempt at the apex.
Despite Ernst picking up his second foul with just over eight minutes elapsed, the Pioneers kept raining in baskets as the lead swelled up to 14 on a three by Justin Miller.
Cedarville slowly clawed back and a pair of free throws converted by Quinton Green dropped the deficit inside single digits with 3:45 until halftime. Freshman Jayvon Maughmer found the bank open from deep that made the score 34-28 and finished a beautiful Euro Step on the break to split two defenders after a steal to put the Yellow Jackets within four.
Another defensive sequence out of a Malone timeout included a Maughmer blocked shot and offensively, it was Isaiah Speelman dropping in a soft baby hook. It all amounted to a 17-1 run to close the half and Conner TenHove’s shot in the paint tied things up at 34-34.
The second half was all about execution. Malone hampered Cedarville’s ability to get into the lane and disrupted any guard penetration with swarming help around, over and under different screens. The Yellow Jackets were able to hit some tough shots, but just couldn’t get the looks they were carving out in the first half.
Standout sixth man Justin Miller was tough to handle in the second half as he pushed the pace with his transition runouts and drilled some deep threes.
With Cedarville holding on to a 42-40 lead, Malone put together a 17-0 run that was punctuated with a Miller layup on the break. By that time, the Pioneers that built a 15-point advantage and the lead swelled up to as many as 18 with five minutes left.
Miller led all players with 20 points and pulled in eight rebounds. Senior Jaret Majestic added 19, including five triples, while Ernst had a double-double with 16 points and 11 boards. First team all-conference performer Bo Myers had 11 points before leaving the game with an undisclosed injury.
Cedarville was led by senior forward Conner TenHove with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting while the first team all-conference guard Maughmer finished with 13.