OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Marietta College scored the first 12 points of the game and never looked back as the No. 17 ranked Pioneers defeated Albright College 74-56 Friday (Nov. 18) afternoon in the first round of the fifth annual Hoopsville National Invitational Classic presented by Buffalo Wild Wings.
Marietta (2-0 overall) won the opening tip and junior
Dillon Young (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) quickly drained a three-pointer. Aided by four Albright turnovers in the early going, the Pioneers got a pair of layups from
Jack Thome (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Chagrin Falls) and a layup and three-ball from
A.J. Edwards (Twinsburg, Ohio/Twinsburg) to push the margin to 12-0 at the 15:27 mark.
The Lions (1-1 overall) finally got on the board when DeJuan Smith hit a three-pointer nearly six minutes into the game. But the damage was done. Albright would get no closer than nine points and trailed by double digits the entire second half.
A jumper from
Anthony Wallace (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) with 5:40 left in the first half gave Marietta a 23-point advantage, 38-15. The Pioneers led by 20 at halftime, 47-27.
Leading by as many as 29 points in the second half, Pioneer head coach
Jon VanderWal was able to clear his bench early. With a matchup looming with the No. 2 team in the nation on Saturday, Marietta will be well rested as the starters averaged just over 18 minutes against Albright.
Edwards scored 14 first-half points and finished with a game=high 16 points in the game. He also grabbed a team-high five rebounds.
Keith Richardson (Englewood, Ohio/Northmont) added 13 points and four boards off the bench.
Thome tallied eight points, while Wallace chipped in with seven points and four rebounds. Freshman
Caleb Hoyng (Celina, Ohio/Celina) pulled down five rebounds to go along with four points off the bench.
For the game, Marietta shot 43.7% (31-of-71) from the floor, 27.6% (8-of-29) from three-point range and 57.1% (4-of-7) from the free throw line. Albright was 21-of-57 (36.8%) from the floor, 5-of-21 (23.8%) behind the arc and 9-of-14 (64.3%) at the line.
Marietta forced 23 Lions turnovers that resulted in 23 points for the Pioneers. MC committed 14 turnovers in the game. The Pioneers outrebounded Albright by one, 40-39.
In the feature game of the Classic, Marietta and No. 2 ranked Christopher Newport University will square off in the final game of the weekend Saturday (Nov. 19) at 8 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.
