Box Score MARIETTA, Ohio – In a battle of the top two teams in the Ohio Athletic Conference, the University of Mount Union held on to defeat Marietta College by the score of 81-77 Wednesday (Feb. 19) evening in front of a near-sellout crowd in Ban Johnson Arena.
Mount Union (20-4 overall, 15-2 OAC) clinched the OAC regular season title and the #1 seed in next week's conference tournament. Marietta (18-6 overall, 13-4 OAC) will be the #2 seed in the OAC tournament. Both teams have a double bye and will play in the semifinals on Thursday (Feb. 26).
The two teams went toe to toe all night as the game featured 14 lead changes and seven ties. Mount Union went on a 13-5 run that gave the Purple Raiders a 70-60 lead with 4:48 left in the game.
Marietta fought back and cut the deficit to three, 75-72, on a pair of free throws from
A.J. Davis (Naples, Fla./Palmetto Ridge) with 20 seconds left on the clock. The Pioneers were forced to foul and Mount's Kyle Scelza appeared to ice the game with two free throws to put the Purple Raiders ahead 79-74 with six seconds remaining.
But a three-pointer from
Garrett Stephenson (West Milton/Milton-Union) made it a two-point game, 79-77, with two seconds left on the clock. Marietta immediately fouled and T.J. Gillespie converted both free throws with one second on the clock to seal the victory for the Purple Raiders.
Stephenson led all scorers with 17 points.
Luis Garcia (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian) scored 16 points, while Davis had 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Andy Dollman (Vienna, W.Va./Parkersburg) finished with 10 points.
Gillespie led the Purple Raiders with 16 points. Nate Jacubec scored 14 points and had a team-best eight boards. Jeff Foreman added 14 points off the bench and Scelza chipped in with 10 points.
Marietta finishes the regular season at home on Saturday (Feb. 22) with a 3:00 p.m. tip against John Carroll University. Fans can follow the Pioneers all season long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter.
