February 23, 2008
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Pioneers Clinch AMC North Title With 83-65 Victory Over HoughtonThe Malone College men’s basketball team clinched the American Mideast Conference North Division Title at home on Saturday night with a convincing 83-65 win over Houghton (NY) College. Following the 18-point triumph, Malone and Notre Dame (OH) College finished in a tie atop the division standings with identical 7-3 records in AMC North play. However, because Point Park (PA) University won its contest with Roberts Wesleyan (NY) College on Saturday afternoon, Malone won the tiebreaker over Notre Dame and thus captured the North Division title. The Pioneers will now play at South Division winner Walsh University in the AMC Championship game on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The winner of Tuesday’s game earns an automatic bid to the NAIA Division II National Tournament which will be held in Point Lookout, Missouri March 12-18. The loser of the AMC Title game is still alive in the postseason and will become the #1 seed in the six-team AMC Tournament that is to be played Feb. 28, March 1, and March 4. See Playoff Picture below
With the knowledge that Point Park had won earlier in the day and that a victory would clinch the North Division, Malone took command of Saturday’s contest in the opening minutes and then did not look back as it rolled to an 83-65 victory. The Pioneers never trailed in the game as they used an early 15-0 run to take a sizeable 29-11 lead at the 6:43 mark of the first half. Malone went to the locker room at intermission with a 40-23 advantage and then stretched its lead to as many as 27 points in the second stanza as it pulled away for its 20th win of the season.
Malone’s record improved to 20-8 overall (7-3 AMC North) with the victory while Houghton fell to 7-19 (0-10 AMC North).
The Pioneers shot over 50% (28 of 55) from the field, made six of 18 (33.3%) three-pointers, and connected on 21 of 25 (84%) free throws. Houghton converted on 40% (10 of 25) of its shots from three-point range, but struggled from inside the arc, hitting just 21 of its 55 (38.2%) overall field goal attempts. The Highlanders made 13 of 17 (76.5%) free throws but trailed 38-29 in total rebounds.
Senior forward Tyler Renner (Garaway H.S.) scored a game-high 21 points (7-12 FG, 0-1 3PT FG, 7-8 FT) for Malone to go with five rebounds and three assists. Senior guard Ben Carver (Shelby H.S.) notched 19 points, three assists and a season-high 10 rebounds while junior guard Andrew Weaver (Hiland H.S.) tossed in 18 points.
Rimgaudas Valaitis paced Houghton with 18 points followed by Mada Abdelhamid with 11 points and Ben Kopp with 10.
Playoff Picture: The AMC postseason structure has changed this year with only two automatic bids up for grabs to the NAIA Division II National Tournament (instead of three because the AMC fell below the 16-team minimum this season that the NAIA requires for a conference to receive three automatic bids). One of the two automatic bids will be awarded on Feb. 26 when the North Division champion (Malone) visits the South Division Champion (Walsh). The loser of this game will then be sent to the six-team AMC Tournament as the automatic #1 seed. The rest of the AMC Tournament field will consist of finishers 2 and 3 in the North Division (Notre Dame, Point Park) as well as finishers 2, 3, and 4 in the South (Cedarville University, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and Ohio Dominican University). Those five teams will be seeded by a Seeding Committee this weekend. The AMC Tournament will be contested on Feb. 28, March 1 and 4 with the tournament’s top two seeds earning first-round byes. The tournament champion earns the second automatic NAIA national tournament bid.
Malone vs. Walsh: Tuesday’s game will mark the 97th meeting between the two schools. Walsh, ranked sixth in the most recent NAIA Division II National Poll with a 24-4 overall record (12-2 AMC South), leads the all-time series 57-39 and has won 17 out of the last 19 contests with the Pioneers, including victories of 70-56 (at Malone on November 29th) and 81-76 (in Mayors’ Cup game at Walsh on February 7th) earlier this season.
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