Findlay Hangs On vs Malone | Horstman Reaches 1,000 pts.
Canton, Ohio – The University of Findlay women's basketball regained it's position as the leader in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) on Thursday, Feb. 1 following a 58-53 victory against Malone University. The win gives the Oilers a 16-4 record overall with a 13-3 mark in conference play which, by virtue of a Cedarville loss, puts Findlay back into the driver's seat in the league standings. With the loss, the Pioneers, which represented the G-MAC last year in the NCAA tournament following a G-MAC Tournament Championship, fall to 8-12 overall with a 6-10 record in the league. Findlay's 16 wins are the most in a season since Jim Wiedie took over the program in 2013.
Findlay trailed for most of the first quarter and led by just a point through the first ten minutes. Malone regained the lead at 14-13 after one minute of the second quarter, but a 9-0 run over the next four minutes gave the Oilers the lead for good.
The Pioneers would not go away, however, and cut the lead to 39-38 in the third quarter and again pulled to within one, 54-53, with a minute and a half left in the game. Malone shot 0-for-3 for the remainder of the game as the Oilers pulled away to seal the victory.
Senior Haley Horstman tied a season-high and was one point shy of her career-high as she scored 21 points on 8-of-14 from the floor and made a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. Her most memorable bucket came seven minutes into the game when Horstman became the 21st player in Oilers history to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career. The New Knoxville, Ohio native now sits at 1,018 career points.
Junior Jenna Stegmaier was the only other player in double-figures as she scored 12 points in the win. Stegmaier nearly missed a double-double, grabbing eight rebounds while fellow junior Anna Hintz led the squad with 11 boards.
Junior Elissa Ellerbrock scored nine points on 3-of-6 from the floor. She also grabbed six rebounds and tied a career-high with two blocks. Juniors Christa Puthoff and Allie Thobe each scored five points off the bench. Thobe snagged seven rebounds, four of which came on the offensive glass.
Findlay made just 20-of-55 from the floor for 36.4%. Missing their three-point sharpshooter, Lynsey Englebrecht, the Oilers hit just 3-of-11 from deep (27.3%) which tied their lowest three-point output of the season. However, the Oilers held the Pioneers to just 17-of-52 from the floor (32.7%) and outrebounded the home team 43-to-28.
Findlay will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 3 as they take on Walsh University. That game, the final regular season road game of the year, will tip off at 3:00pm.