CANTON, Ohio - A strong second half performance pushed the Tiffin University men's basketball team (9-15, 6-12 GLIAC) past Malone (11-11, 8-10 GLIAC) 68-65, Thursday night at Osborne Hall.
The first half was one of runs. Tiffin came out shooting with six points in the first minute of the contest. Malone returned the favor running off a 10-1 stretch, making it 10-7, Pioneers with 15 minutes left.
The Dragons gritted their teeth with a 6-3 burst. Freshman Khaleal McCormick tied the game at 13 with a dunk at the 12:02 mark. It was back and forth with the score tied at 28 with 1:11 to go.
MU scored the last five points to lead by five at the break. While both teams shot around 33% from the floor, it was behind the arc that made a difference. Malone hit 40% on treys compared to 12.5% for TU.
The Pioneers put the screws to Tiffin for the first four minutes of the second half. Christian Graves drained a triple to make it 47-38 at the 16:04 mark.
Then it was time for the Dragon Express to get on track. Junior Joe Graessle popped in a bomb from the California zip code. That made it nine straight points and knotted the game at 47-47 with 14:56 to go.
Tiffin kept it rolling with freshman Eric Roby hitting a trey. That gave the Dragons a 15-2 run and the lead 54-49 with 13:18 to go. MU got the wagons rolling with five straight points. Brian Stone hit two free throws to make it 54-54 at the 11:11 mark.
The rest of the way was nip and tuck. Malone held the lead at 65-62 with 4:10 to go. Junior Mike Boan and McCormick hit buckets to put TU in the lead 66-65 at the 2:57 mark. Finally with 14 seconds left, McCormick hit a pair of free throws to seal the win.
In the second half, Tiffin shot 50% from the floor and from behind the arc. Although Malone shot 38% from the floor, they were held to 16.7% on three's.
For Tiffin, Graessle had 24 points and four steals while senior Cody Dennison had 11 points, five assists and two steal. McCormick had eight points and two steals off the bench. It was Graessle's ninth straight 20+ scoring performance.
For Malone, Cory Veldhuizen had 15 points and eight rebounds while Zach Bates scored 12 points.
Tiffin returns home Saturday, Feb. 16, when they host Walsh. The game is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. Live Stats will be available at http://livestats.prestosports.com/tiffin/
-TIFFIN UNIVERSITY-
