WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Freshman #Tyler Hammond (Cleveland/St. Ignatius)# connected on a floater in the lane as time expired to help #23 Marietta College escape the Rike Center with a thrilling 65-63 Ohio Athletic Conference men's basketball victory over host Otterbein College Saturday (Jan. 29) night. [Box Score]

With the victory, the first-place Pioneers improved to 17-2 overall and 10-2 in league play. They maintained a one-game advantage over second place Capital University with six games remaining on the OAC slate. Marietta also became the first school to clinch a spot in the upcoming eight-team OAC Tournament. The Cardinals felt to 9-10 overall, 5-7 in the Conference.

It was not the start the Pioneers had envisioned as they found themselves trailing by 11 points, 39-28, with 1:07 to play in the half. A three-point play by junior #Kevin Knab (Lakewood/Lakewood)# helped Marietta cut the deficit to eight points, 39-31, at the break.

Head Coach Jon VanderWal's club came out of the break inspired and quickly tied the game at 39-all with an 8-0 run over the first 2:37 of the period. Marietta didn't take its first lead of the half until sophomore #Tyler Worstell (Prospect/Franklin Heights)# hit a jumper in the paint with 12:40 to go in the game.

A basket by junior #Trevor Halter (Malvern/Malvern)# gave the Pioneers their biggest lead of the day, 51-46, with 7:01 left on the clock. Otterbein, however, tied the game at 51-51 less than two minutes later. The lead went back and forth down the stretch until a jumper by Knab and then a lay-up by Zach Bakenhaster tied the game again at 63-63 with 10 seconds to play.

A Marietta timeout set up the final play of regulation. When the first option was denied, Hammond continued into the lane and floated a shot over the Otterbein big men that swished through the net to spark a Pioneer victory celebration.

Knab led Marietta with 17 points, Halter added 14, Hammond contributed 12 and sophomore #Jacob Owens (Mansfield/Mansfield)# finished with 11. Sophomore #Jason Humphrey (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier)# pulled down a team-best eight boards. Junior #Joe Puch (Brunswick/Brunswick)# also returned after missing 12 games and provided a defensive spark throughout the game. Overall, the Pioneers shot 40.3% (25-of-62), including 29.6% (8-of-27) from beyond the arc.

Otterbein's Chris Davis paced all scorers and rebounders with 22 points and 12 boards. Matt McCollister also finished in double figures, scoring 14. The Cardinals shot 24-of-46 (52.2%) from the field and won the battle of the boards 39-27 but could not overcome 22 turnovers, which led directly to 17 Pioneer points.

Marietta is back in action Wednesday (Feb. 2) night when it visits Wilmington College for a tip-off at 7:30 p.m.