ERIE, Pa. – Despite falling behind 16-0 to start the game, Head Coach Jill Meiring's young Pioneer squad clawed their way back to a victory over Bethany College (W.V.) 64-57 in the opening game of the Penn State Behrend Tip-Off Tournament. The Pioneers improve to 2-0 on the season and will play in tomorrow's championship game. Bethany falls to 0-2 and will in the consolation game on Saturday (Nov. 19) afternoon. [
Box Score]
“We were getting good shots during Bethany's run but they just weren't falling,” said Meiring. “We picked up our intensity on defense and that sparked our offense. We got good looks in transition and we really fought hard.”
Down 16-0 to start the contest, Meiring used her second timeout of the game to slow the Bison rally. What was said during that timeout must have awoken the Pioneer ladies as they would out score the Bison 22-12 in the last 15 minutes of the first half to only trail 28-22 at the break.
Bethany stretched the lead back to nine points early in the second half, but it was all Marietta the rest of the way. A 12-0 Pioneer run gave Marietta its first lead at 36-33 with 14:41 to play in regulation. Both teams traded small leads throughout the rest of the contest until a #Kristeva Rowe# layup put the Pioneers up for good at 55-54 with 6:13 to play. Marietta stretched the lead to as many as eight as it went on to win by seven, 64-57.
Junior post #
Aleisha Guiler (Lower Salem/Monroe Central)# led the way for Marietta with a game-high 17 points and six rebounds. Freshman post #
Heather Booth (Newport/Frontier)# added 12 points off the bench while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Sophomore guard #
Tori Dixon (Londonderry/Vinton County)# chipped in with 10 points in the victory.
Kayla Taormina led Bethany with 17 points and three rebounds. Renee Shepherd scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for the Bison. Kelly Zogran added 10 points and six boards in the loss.
Marietta finished the game shooting 32.4% (22-of-68) from the field, 36.4% (4-of-11) from the three-point line and 69.6% (16-of-23) from the free throw line. Bethany finished the game shooting 32.2% (19-of-59) from the field, 25% (6-of-24) from three and 76.5% (13-of-17) from the free throw line. Bethany held a slim edge on the boards 45-43 but committed 25 turnovers to Marietta's 19.
The Pioneers will play the host school in Saturday's (Nov. 19) championship game of the Penn State Behrend Tip-Off Tournament. Penn State defeated Hiram 53-43 in the first round. Game time is slated for 3 p.m.
