MARIETTA, Ohio — While a Winter Weekend storm forced Marietta College's Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) men's basketball game with visiting Heidelberg University to be postponed until Sunday (Feb. 7), those fans that stuck around the extra day were treated to another dramatic OAC contest at Ban Johnson Arena as the result was in doubt until the final horn sounded for the fourth straight home game. On Sunday, the Pioneers were finally on the positive end of that result as they defeated the Student Princes 77-72 to snap a four-game losing streak and improve to 9-12 overall and 5-9 in league play. Heidelberg dropped to 12-9 overall and 8-6 in the OAC. [Box Score]

Sophomore Trevor Halter (Malvern, Malvern) led Marietta with 16 points, scoring 11 in the first half. Senior Daun Lutes (New Matamoras, Frontier) finished with a season-high 13 points, including back-to-back key buckets down the stretch. Sophomore Kevin Knab (Lakewood, Lakewood) also scored double figures. He finished with 10 points and a team-best five rebounds.

Heidelberg's Josh Calver led all scorers with 27 points, 19 of which came in the initial 20 minutes. Dane Givner added 13 points, while Travis Kinn finished with 11 in the loss.

Heidelberg got off to a fast start and led 11-2 three minutes into the action. Marietta stormed back to tie the game at 17-17 with 11:25 to play in the period. The two teams remained within two possessions of each other for the rest of the half and entered intermission locked in a 42-42 tie.

Both teams shot well over the first 20 minutes. Marietta hit 15-of-27 (55.6%) from the field, including 7-of-10 (70.0%) from long range, while Heidelberg connected on 14-of-28 (50.0%) from the floor, making 4-of-6 (66.7%) from beyond the arc.

The two-possession trend continued throughout the entire second half as neither team could gain much of an advantage. With the scored tied for the 13th time, 64-64, Lutes scored a layup and then a put back to give the Pioneers a 70-66 lead with 2:54 to play in the game. Knab gave Marietta a six-point lead, 72-66, with a baseline jumper with 39 seconds to play.

Calver hit 2-of-3 from the free throw line with 18 second to cut the deficit to four points, 72-68. Forced to foul, the Student Princes sent Halter to the line, and he pushed the lead to five points with 17 seconds left by hitting 1-of-2 from the charity stripe. Marietta kept the five-point lead by answering a pair of Givner layups with four foul shots from freshman Cole Hatfield (Chesapeake , Fairfield) to seal the 77-72 victory.

Marietta shot 50.9% (27-of-53) for the game, including 46.7% (7-of-15) from beyond the arc. Heidelberg finished 25-of-63 (39.7%) overall and 5-of-14 (35.7%) from long range. The Student Princes out rebounded the Pioneers 40-30 and finished with 16 turnovers compared to Marietta's 12.

Marietta is back in action on Wednesday (Feb. 10) night when the Pioneers visit New Concord for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off with host Muskingum University.