HOLLAND, Mich. – In a battle of top twenty teams, the 15th-ranked Hope College Flying Dutchman defeated the No. 20 ranked Marietta College Pioneers by the score of 84-73 Thursday (Dec. 29) evening in the first round of the 23rd annual Russ Devette Holiday Classic. [Box Score]

The loss drops Marietta to 7-4 on the season. Hope improves to 9-1 overall.

Hope jumped out to an early lead and built a 14-point advantage with 9:30 left in the first half.  The Pioneers slowly chipped away at the deficit and ended the period with three straight three-pointers to take a 34-33 lead into the intermission.

Playing in front of over 3,000 Dutchman fans, Hope came out of the locker room and quickly regained the lead. Following a 43-43 tie with 15:34 left in the game, Hope used a 12-3 run to take control of the game, 55-46, at the 11:48 mark.

The Pioneers managed to cut the lead to two, 61-59, with 6:53 remaining. But Hope answered with an 8-1 run to push the margin back to nine points, 69-60 at the 4:21 mark. Marietta would get no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Senior #Kevin Knab (Lakewood/Lakewood)# led the Pioneers with 20 points. Senior #Trevor Halter (Malvern/Malvern)# scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds, while sophomore #Tyler Hammond (Cleveland/St. Ignatius)# added 12 points and seven assists.

Peter Bunn paced the Dutchmen with 18 points. Nate Snuggerud and David Krombeen each scored 15 points and Colton Overway added 11.

Marietta shot 46.4% (26-of-56) from the floor, 36.8% (7-of-19) from three-point range and 73.7% (14-of-19) from the free throw line.

Hope hit 32-of-56 (57.1%) from the floor, 5-of-11 (45.5%) from behind the arc and 15-of-19 (78.9%) at the charity stripe.

The Pioneers had a slim edge on the boards, 34 to 31. Marietta committed 14 turnovers while Hope had 12 turnovers.

The Pioneers are back in action tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. against Grace Bible (Mich.) in the consolation game.