GRANVILLE, Ohio – The Marietta College men's basketball team, ranked number six in the nation by D3hoops.com, was given all it could handle Tuesday (Nov. 15) night as it escaped with a 64-58 win over Denison. The Pioneers (1-0) fought a furious second half Big Red comeback in the waning minutes of regulation to capture its first win of the 2011-12 campaign. [Box Score]

“We didn't play our best tonight, but we play hard for forty minutes,” said Marietta Head Coach John VanderWal. “Give Denison credit. They took us out of some of our game plan. Denison is a good basketball team.”

VanderWal's team could not pull away from the upset minded Big Red. The Pioneers led by nine at the half, 28-19, despite only shooting 30.3% (10-of-33) from the field. The Marietta defense, however; held Denison to shooting 20.6% (7-of-34) in the first stanza.

Marietta pushed its lead to as many 12 points on two occasions in the second half before Denison pushed back. With Marietta leading by 11, 51-40 with 8:05 to play in regulation, the Big Red went on a 11-1 run in less than three minutes cutting the lead to just one point at 52-51 with 5:18 left on the clock. After a VanderWal timeout, the Pioneers regrouped down the stretch, outscoring the Big Red 12-7 in the final five minutes to hold on for the 64-58 victory.

Senior post and preseason All-American #Kevin Knab (Lakewood/Lakewood)# scored a game-high 15 points while grabbing six rebounds. Junior guard #Jacob Owens (Mansfield/Mansfield)# added 12 points, all from behind the arc (3-of-6). Sophomore point guard #Tyler Hammond (Cleveland/St. Ignatius)# chipped in with 10 points including three assists. Senior center #Conner Kilpatrick (Bowling Green/Bowling Green)# added eight points with eight boards in the win.

Denison was led by Dimonde Hale with 15 points and a team tying high seven rebounds. Larry Farmer added 12 points also grabbing seven boards. Marr Mansfield chipped in with 11 points and seven boards as well for the Big Red.

For the game, Marietta finished shooting 33.9% (20-of-59) from the field, 25% (6-of-24) from three and 69.2% (18-of-26) from the free throw line. Denison finished the game shooting 36.5% (23-of-63) from the field, 7.7% (1-of-13) from downtown and 73.3% (11-of-15) from the charity stripe. Marietta held a slim edge in rebounding 43-41 and committed nine turnovers to Denison's 10.

The Pioneers are back in action on Friday (Nov. 18) night in its home-opener against Methodist University (N.C.) in the 41st annual Marietta Shrine Tournament. Tip-off Friday is slated for 7:30 p.m. Methodist will play Kenyon College on Saturday at 4 p.m. then Marietta will play Kenyon on Sunday (Nov. 20) at 4 p.m.