The Tiffin University men's basketball team defeated the Malone University Pioneers 79-69 on Thursday night, out rebounding the Pioneers 40-28, and holding a 34-22 advantage in points in the paint.

Tiffin started the 1st half with a bang, with Tony Kynard finding Jonathan Sutherlin with a backdoor lob for a two-handed slam. Sutherlin added another two points on the next possession to give the Dragons a 4-0 lead. Malone's Christian Graves led the Pioneer offense early, scoring the first 12 points for the Pioneers. The teams continued to trade blows, with the half featuring eight ties. The Dragons used the final three minutes of the half to go on a 6-3 run to lead 31-28 at the break.

At the intermission, Juwan Johnson led the Dragons in scoring with 10 points on 4 of 9 shooting from the field. The painted area was fruitful for the Dragons, with 14 of TU's 31 points coming in the paint.

The Pioneers opened the 2nd half with four quick points to take a 33-31 lead. The Dragons responded with a Juwan Johnson three point bucket and a Chrisean Marsden layup to regain the lead at 36-33. With 15:00 remaining, TU boosted their lead to its largest at 43-37 with an Alex Brown long range jumper. Malone cut their deficit to three with a couple free throws, with 12:53 remaining. From that point on, the Dragon lead continued to grow, Chrisean Marsden poured in eight 2nd half points, and Juwan Johnson added 13 as the Dragons pulled away to defeat Malone 79-69.

Juwan Johnson scored a game high 23 points including a 7 for 7 performance from the charity stripe. Jonathan Sutherlin recorded a double with 11 points and 10 boards, Chrisean Marsden also notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards, and Alex Brown dumped in 17 points.

The win moves the Dragons to 8-10 overall and 4-7 in GLIAC play.