CANTON, Ohio - Senior Karl Finley and sophomore Joe Graessle combined for 50 points as the Tiffin University men's basketball team (14-13) defeated Malone (11-13) 77-69, Saturday afternoon at Osborne Hall. It was the fourth straight win for the Dragons.
"Everything is coming together right now," said head coach John Hill. "Malone has a real good team. We had to work hard to beat them."
Malone came out firing on all cylinders early. Eric Coblentz hit a 3-pointer to give the Pioneers a 12-5 lead at the 15:54 mark. Tiffin came back with a 9-2 run. Senior Brandon Harris tipped in a missed shot to make it 14-14 with 12:11 left.
The score remained tight for the next few minutes. With 9:28 left, Graessle hit two free throws to make it 20-19. It was the first lead of the game for the Dragons.
MU held a 35-33 lead to go with 2:28 to go. Finley had a dunk and hit a triple and senior Travis Spahr hit a layup. That made it seven straight points and gave TU the 40-35 lead at the half.
In the second half, Tiffin could not pull away from Malone for the first 10 minutes. Michael Shull hit a layup to make it 53-49, Dragons with 11:40 to go. TU reeled off an 11-4 run to go up by 11, 64-53 at the 7:25 mark. The Pioneers could get no closer than six.
For Tiffin, Finley had 26 points with four triples, Graessle had 24 points and hit four treys and senior Keenan Barlow scored 11 points. Harris scored 10 points and blocked three shots while Spahr had 13 rebounds and blocked three shots.
For Malone, Coblentz had 25 points with seven triples and Zach Bates scored 10 points.
Tiffin closes out the home portion of the season, Thursday, February 23 against Lake Erie. The game is scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. Live Stats will be available at http://livestats.prestosports.com/tiffin/
-TIFFIN UNIVERSITY-
