MARIETTA, Ohio — 21-0. The No. 3 ranked Marietta College men's basketball team downed visiting Wilmington College 85-75 Saturday (Feb. 7) afternoon setting a new school record for consecutive wins in a single season. The old mark of 20 straight was held by the 1953-53 Pioneer squad.
Marietta (21-0, 14-0 OAC) never trailed in the game as the Pioneers had too many weapons for Wilmington (9-11, 6-8 OAC) to handle. Five different Pioneers scored in double figures as Marietta shot over 50% from the floor for the fifth straight game.
Head coach
Jon VanderWal was forced to go to his bench early when both of Marietta's starting big men got into early foul trouble.
A.J. Edwards (Aurora/Twinsburg) came off the bench to lead MC with a career-high 15 points. Edwards was 6-for-6 from the floor, sank a three-pointer and grabbed five rebounds.
Senior
Garrett Stephenson (West Milton/Milton-Union) shook off the early foul trouble and finished with 14 points and four rebounds.
RaNeal Ewing (Westerville/Dublin Scioto) and
Luis Garcia (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian) each chipped in with 11 points and
Keith Richardson (Englewood/Northmont) scored 10 points off the bench.
Eddy Grenert (Wooster/Triway) led the Pioneers on the glass with eight rebounds.
StephensonWilmington's Dwight Johnson hit five three-pointers and led all scorers with 23 points. He also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds to go along with five steals and three assists. Jonathan Bibbs finished with 13 points and R.J. Leppert had seven boards.
After early ties at 2-2 and 4-4, Marietta took control of the game with an 11-2 run to lead by nine, 15-6, at the 13:20 mark. The Quakers would get as close as two points, but MC finished the first half on a 19-3 run and led by 18, 47-29, at the break.
Marietta's lead ballooned to as many as 22 points in the second half. The Quakers took advantage of 10 second-half turnovers by the Pioneers to stay within striking distance. Wilmington managed to cut the deficit to nine points in the final minute.
For the game, Marietta shot 53.3% (32-of-60) from the floor, 40.0% (8-of-20) from three-point range and 81.3% (13-of-16) at the free throw line. Wilmington was 26-of-57 (45.6%) from the floor, 5-of-16 (31.3%) behind the arc and 18-of-26 (69.2%) at the line.
Marietta outrebounded the Quakers 35-32. The Pioneers committed 15 turnovers, while Wilmington turned the ball over 14 times.
The Pioneers have two big road games next week. Marietta plays at the University of Mount Union, currently in second place in the OAC with a 12-2 record, on Wednesday (Feb. 11) at 7:30 p.m. Marietta then travels to third place John Carroll University on Saturday (Feb. 14) for a 2:00 p.m. game.
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.
