WILMINGTON, Ohio – Senior Joe Puch (Brunswick/Brunswick) laid in the game-winner at the buzzer to give the No. 20 Marietta College men's basketball team a 65-63 win over Wilmington College Wednesday (Dec. 21) evening. The win improves Marietta to 7-3 overall and 3-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Wilmington falls to 5-5 and 4-1 in the OAC. [Box Score]

In a game that featured 15 ties and 15 lead changes, the Pioneers were able to pull out a key conference road victory.

Wilmington's RJ Leppert tied the game, 63-63, on a layup with 22 seconds remaining. The Pioneers held the ball for the last shot only to have Tyler Hammond (Cleveland/St. Ignatius) miss the jumper. Puch grabbed the rebound and scored the layup as the buzzer sounded.

The Quakers jumped out to the early lead scoring the first five points of the game. Malcolm Heard scored three of his 19 first-half points on an old-fashioned three-point play giving Wilmington its biggest lead of the game, 13-6, with 14:19 left in the first half.

Marietta responded with a 6-0 run to cut the lead to one, 13-12, at the 11:17 mark. Neither team would lead by more than four points the rest of the game. The Pioneers held a slim 35-32 lead at the half.

Heard led all scorers with 26 points as he hit 11-of-14 from the floor, including a perfect 3-of-3 from long range. Heard was the only Quaker in double figures. Dwight Johnson had eight points, while Brandon Candella scored seven.

Conner Kilpatrick (Bowling Green/Bowling Green) paced the Pioneers with 17 points. Kilpatrick was 7-of-9 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the line. He added six rebounds. Hammond scored 10 points, all in the second half. Kevin Knab (Lakewood/Lakewood) pulled down a game-high eight rebounds to go along with seven points.

Puch hit one of two free throws to give Marietta its biggest lead of the game, 59-55, with 4:10 left in the game. Wilmington responded with a three-point play to trim the lead to one, 59-58.

A three-pointer from Johnson with 3:10 left put Wilmington ahead by one, 61-60. Kilpatrick hit one of two throws to knot the game at 61-61. Following a miss by the Quakers, a Kilpatrick jumper gave Marietta a two-point lead, 63-61, with 39 seconds left.

Leppert's layup with 22 seconds on the clock evened the game for the final time and set the stage for Puch's last-second heroics.

For the game, Marietta shot 44.6% (25-of-56) from the floor, 31.3% (5-of-16) from long range and 76.9% (10-of-13) from the free throw line.

Wilmington connected on 26-of-57 (45.6%) field goal attempts, including 7-of-24 (29.2%) from three-point land, and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.

Wilmington committed 12 turnovers to just nine for Marietta.

The Pioneers are off until December 29-30 when they travel to Michigan to play in the Hope College Tournament. Marietta plays the host school at 8 p.m. on the 29th.