MARIETTA, Ohio — No. 10 ranked Marietta College totally dominated Otterbein University while cruising to a 109-58 drubbing Saturday (Jan. 16) afternoon in Ban Johnson Arena. The Pioneers reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in the last five meetings with the Cardinals.
Marietta improves to 13-2 overall and 7-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The Pioneers remain one game behind OAC leader John Carroll (8-0 OAC) and tied with Mount Union (7-1 OAC). Otterbein falls to 3-12 and 1-7 in the OAC.
Otterbein took its only lead of the game, 6-4, on a jumper by Jake Phillis only to see the Pioneers hit three straight three-pointers to go in front 13-6.
Luis Garcia (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian) sank a pair of treys, while
Dillon Young (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) hit the other.
Marietta never trailed again. The Pioneers led 56-31 at halftime. With the outcome decided, MC head coach
Jon VanderWal was able to clear his bench. 19 different Pioneers played in the game with 15 players scoring points.
Statistically, MC outplayed the Cardinals in every phase of the game. Marietta dominated the paint outscoring Otterbein 50-26 inside. MC got 64 points off the bench and tallied 36 points off Cardinal turnovers.
A.J. Edwards (Twinsburg, Ohio/Twinsburg) led Marietta with 16 points and eight rebounds. Garcia finished with 15 points, while
Kyle Dixon (Poland, Ohio/Poland Seminary) and
A.J. Ireland (Carroll, Ohio/Bloom-Carroll) added 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Marc McCuen paced Otterbein with 14 points and seven boards. Phillis tallied 10 points.
For the game, Marietta shot 59.5% (44-of-74) from the floor, 54.5% (12-of-22) from three-point range and 56.3% (9-of-16) at the free throw line. The Cardinals were 21-of-51 (41.2%) from the floor, 4-of-21 (19.0%) behind the arc and 12-of-16 (75.0%) at the line.
Marietta outrebounded Otterbein 38-28. The Pioneers forced 23 Otterbein turnovers and committed just nine of their own.
Marietta travels to #19-ranked Mount Union on Wednesday (Jan. 20). Tip off for this key OAC matchup is set for 7:30 p.m. Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
