TIFFIN, Ohio – The Marietta College men's basketball team held off a pesky Heidelberg University club for a 75-63 Ohio Athletic Conference victory Saturday (Dec, 15) afternoon. The Pioneers stay unbeaten in league play with a 3-0 record and are 6-2 overall. Heidelberg drops to 4-5 on the season and 0-4 in the OAC.
The Pioneers saw their 24-point lead trimmed to just nine by the Student Princes with just over three minutes left in the game. Senior #
J.J. Martin (Huntington, W.Va./Huntington)# scored Marietta's final seven points of the game and finished with a game-high 24 points.
Heidelberg jumped out to an early lead and held a 14-7 advantage with 12:23 left in the first half. Marietta responded with a 15-2 run to take control of the game, 22-16. The Pioneers would retain the lead the rest of the way.
Junior point guard #
Tyler Hammond (Cleveland/St. Ignatius)# scored all 11 of his points in the first half to propel the Pioneers to an 11-point halftime lead, 39-28. Martin also tallied 11 points in the opening stanza.
Marietta started the second half with a 7-0 run to push its lead to 46-28. The Pioneers gradually increased the margin to 24 points. Freshman #
Luis Garcia (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian)# hit a three-pointer with 11:30 left in the game to give Marietta its biggest lead of the day, 62-38.
The Student Princes refused to go quietly and chipped away at the deficit. Over the next eight minutes Heidelberg outscored Marietta 21-6 to pull within nine points, 68-59, with 3:02 remaining.
Heidelberg's Doug Waldmannstetter hit two free throws with 2:03 left in the game to keep it a nine-point margin, 70-61. But Martin answered with a layup and a three-pointer to seal the victory for the Pioneers.
Martin hit 10-of-11 from the floor, including both of his three-point attempts, to lead Marietta with 24 points. Hammond was the only other Pioneer in double figures with 11 points.
Junior #
Matt Napier (Powell/Olentangy Liberty)#, sophomore #
Brennan McKean (Jeromesville, Ohio/Northwestern)# and Garcia each added eight points for the Pioneers. Sophomore #
Garrett Stephenson (West Milton/Milton-Union)# chipped in with six points.
Seniors Dane Givner and Nate Davis led the Student Princes with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Davis grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
For the game, Marietta shot 52.4% (33-of-63) from the floor, 53.8% (7-of-13) from three-point range and 40.0% (2-of-5) at the line. Heidelberg hit 24-of-59 (40.7%) from the floor, 7-of-26 (26.9%) from behind the arc and was a perfect 8-of-8 (100.0%) at the line.
The Student Princes held a slim 32-29 edge on the glass. Heidelberg committed 13 turnovers to just six for the Pioneers.
Marietta travels to New Concord on Monday (Dec. 17) for a 7:30 p.m. showdown with rival Muskingum University. 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.
