Box Score MARIETTA, Ohio – Marietta College used a balanced attack to defeat John Carroll University 71-61 in the regular season finale Saturday (Feb. 16) afternoon in Ohio Athletic Conference women's basketball action.
The two teams will square off in the first round of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament. Marietta finished the regular season with a 10-15 overall record, 5-13 in the OAC. The Pioneers are the No. 7 seed in the tournament. John Carroll is 13-12 overall and 6-12 in the OAC. The Blue Streaks are seeded seventh.
Following an opening bucket from sophomore
Candice Alexander (Fairborn/Fairborn), John Carroll scored seven unanswered points to take an early 7-2 lead. The Pioneers quickly responded and reclaimed the lead, 12-11, on an old-fashioned three-point play from freshman
Emily Jones (Dublin/Dublin Scioto) with 12:47 left in the half.
Marietta never trailed again. Jones went on to score a career-high 15 points to lead the Pioneers in scoring. She was 7-of-11 from the floor and also grabbed six rebounds in 22 minutes of play off the bench.
The Pioneers finished the first half strong and took a 37-28 lead in the locker room at halftime. John Carroll refused to go quietly cutting the lead down to two points, 43-41, early in the second half.
Marietta pushed the margin back into double digits only to see the Blue Streaks cut the deficit to five points, 62-57, with 5:10 left in the game. Neither team scored for over two minutes and then Pioneers finished the game with a 9-4 run to secure the victory.
In addition to Jones' 15 points, junior
Paige Lamb (Marietta/Marietta) scored 11 points and pulled down seven rebounds, while senior
Krissy Rowe (Toledo/Sylvania Southview) scored 10 points. Junior
Tori Dixon (Londonderry/Vinton County), sophomore
Heather Booth (Newport/Frontier) and Alexander each chipped in with nine points. Booth grabbed a game-high 10 boards.
Melissa Spahar led John Carroll with 21 points and eight rebounds. Allison Lustig hit five three-pointers and finished with 17 points.
For the game, Marietta shot 49.0% (25-of-51) from the floor, 50.0% (6-of-12) behind the arc and 71.4% (15-of-21) at the line. John Carroll was 22-of-59 (37.3%) from the floor, 5-of-24 (20.8%) from three-point range and 12-of-20 (60.0%) at the line.
Marietta dominated glass grabbing 47 rebounds to just 21 for the Blue Streaks. The Pioneers turned the ball over 21 times, while John Carroll committed six turnovers.
Marietta travels to John Carroll for the first round of the OAC Tournament on Monday (Feb. 18) at 6:00 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.
