MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College men's basketball team opened up Ohio Athletic Conference play Saturday (Dec. 1) afternoon with a 90-62 rout of the Otterbein University Cardinals. Marietta improves to 3-2 overall on the year and 1-0 in the OAC. Otterbein falls to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in the OAC. [
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12 Pioneers recorded a point in the scoring column Saturday and were led by sophomore guard #
Brennan McKean (Jeromesville, Ohio/Northwestern)# who came off the bench to score a game-high 15 points, all from behind the arc. Sophomore post #
Garrett Stephenson (West Milton/Milton-Union)# also came of the bench and scored 14 points while grabbing three rebounds.
Senior post #
J.J. Martin (Huntington, W.Va./Huntington)# led a trio of Pioneers with eight points and four steals, while fellow classmate #
Jason Humphrey (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier)# scored seven while snagging a game-high 10 boards.
Colin Echelberry led the Cardinals with 13 points and four rebounds. Max Van Meter scored 11 points while Matt McCollister added 10 points in the loss.
Head Coach
Jon VanderWal's squad turned up its defense in Saturday's matchup forcing a season-high 21 turnovers, including 17 in the first half. After trailing in the early minutes of the game, 6-5, the Pioneers dominated the rest of the half outscoring the Cardinals 41-24 and leading at the half 46-30.
The Pioneers kept the lead over 20 points for most of the second half before cruising to the 28-point victory, 90-62.
The Pioneers finished the game shooting 52.5% (32-of-61) from the field, 58.1% (18-of-31) from the three-point line and 57.1% (8-of-14) from the charity stripe. The Cardinals finished 40.7% (22-of-54) from the field, 34.8% (8-of-23) from three and 66.7% (10-of-15) from the free throw line.
Otterbein held a slim edge in rebounding 35-33, but committed 21 turnovers to Marietta's 13.
The Pioneers return to action on Wednesday (Dec. 5) night for a non-conference bout with Denison University. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 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.
