WESTERVILLE, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team defeated Otterbein University by the score of 60-56 Wednesday (Feb. 18) evening. The Pioneers improve to 9-15 overall and 5-12 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Otterbein drops to 5-19 on the season and 2-15 in league play.

Senior Candice Alexander (Fairborn/Fairborn) led three Pioneers in double figures with 14 points. Alexander hit 5-of- 8 shots from the floor and also pulled down six rebounds. Classmate Jessica Brogan (Cincinnati/Anderson) chipped in with 13 points, while freshman Brooke Borich (Beverly/Fort Frye) scored 10 points.

Brogan had seven rebounds and Borich grabbed six boards. Freshman Ashley Frasure (Logan/Logan) had a game-high 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Otterbein was led by Madi Miller's 17 points. Amariah Huck finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Chelsea Reed dished out 10 assists and notched seven rebounds.

After trading leads in the early going, Otterbein used a 7-0 run to take a 15-8 lead with 11:44 remaining in the first half. The Pioneers took advantage of a 6-0 run to reclaim the lead, 22-21, with 6:00 to play before the break. Neither team could shake the other and the Cardinals took a 32-31 lead into halftime.

A Taylor Pifher layup gave Otterbein the first points of the second half, but Marietta out-scored the Cardinals 14-4 over the next six minutes to open a 45-38 edge. Otterbein continued the game's back-and-forth theme, posting a 9-0 run and grabbing a 47-45 margin as the game clocked moved under 9:00.

The Pioneers found themselves up 56-49 with 4:04 to play, but another 7-0 spurt from the Cardinals, capped by a Miller three-pointer, brought the contest back to even with 2:17 remaining and forced a Marietta timeout. The Pioneers would emerge down the stretch, getting the go-ahead bucket from Frasure shortly after the timeout and keeping the Cardinals scoreless over the final 2:43.

For the game, Marietta shot 30.3% (20-of-66) from the floor, 31.3% (5-of-16) from three-point range and 71.4% (15-of-21) at the line. Otterbein was 24-of-72 (33.3%) from the floor, 5-of-24 (20.8%) behind the arc and 3-of-6 (50.0%) at the line.

The Pioneers outrebounded Otterbein 53-46. Marietta committed 16 turnovers, while the Cardinals turned the ball over 14 times.

Marietta wraps up the regular season at Ohio Northern University on Saturday (Feb. 21) at 3:00 p.m. 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 and Instagram.  Tweet #PioNation