MARIETTA, Ohio – Marietta College held off a feisty Earlham College team to win its first game of the 28th annual Jim Meagle Turkey Shoot by the score of 69-67 Saturday (Nov. 24) evening in women's basketball. The Pioneers led by as many as 11 points in the second half, but the Quakers had a chance for the win as time expired.
Marietta (3-0 overall) never trailed in the game jumping out to a 15-2 lead with 11:42 left in the first half. Earlham (1-3) managed to get the lead back into single digits on several occasions in the period, but a three-pointer from freshman #
Tasha Helmstetter (Wapakoneta/Wapakoneta)# gave Marietta a 35-25 lead at the break.
Earlham opened the second half with a three of its own from Bria Sneed to make it a seven-point deficit. The margin would remain under 10 points until senior #
Krissy Rowe (Toledo/Sylvania Southview)# scored an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Pioneers a 63-52 lead with 5:58 left in the game.
The Quakers gradually chipped away at the lead with the help of several Marietta fouls. Earlham went 10-for-10 from the line over the final five minutes. Jazmynne Cunningham hit a pair of free throws with 36 seconds left to make it a two-point game, 69-67.
Earlham forced the Pioneers to take a three-pointer with the shot clock running out to get the ball back and have a chance for the win. With five seconds on the clock, Quaker head coach Melissa Johnson took a timeout to set up the final play.
The Quakers inbounded the ball but the Pioneers' swarming defense caused Earlham confusion. The final buzzer sounded before the Quakers could get a shot off.
Sophomore #
Candice Alexander (Fairborn/Fairborn)# led the Pioneers with 19 points and seven rebounds. Fellow sophomores #
Sierra Sigman (Chillicothe/Zane Trace)# and #
Heather Booth (Newport/Frontier)# scored 13 and 12 points respectively. Classmate #
Lindsay Deemer (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum)# chipped in with seven boards.
Sneed was Earlham's leading scorer with 19 points. Kasin Spay added 17 points, while Raven Bryant-Williams grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
For the game, Marietta shot 26-of 62 (41.9%) from the floor, 3-of-13 (23.1%) from three-point range and 14-of-19 (73.7%) from the line.
Earlham hit 19-of-58 (32.8%) field goal attempts, 6-of-15 (40.0%) from the three and 23-of-32 (71.9%) at the charity stripe.
The Quakers won the battle of the boards 49-37, but committed 23 turnovers to 19 for the Pioneers.
In the first game of the evening, Muskingum defeated Daemen by the score 60-57. Hannah Nelson scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed seven boards for the Fighting Muskies. Samantha Stanfield led Daemen with 12 points and eight rebounds.
The Turkey Shoot concludes Sunday (Nov. 25) with two more games. Muskingum plays Earlham at 1:00 p.m. and Marietta will face Daemen at 3:00 p.m. Fans can catch the action live at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter.
