ANDERSON, Ind. — The Marietta College women's basketball team defeated Kenyon College, 56-46, Friday (Nov. 18) evening in the first round of the Anderson University Tip-Off Tournament. The victory is the first career win for first year Pioneer head coach
Kole Vivian and improves MC to 1-1 on the season.
Kenyon (1-1 overall) scored the first four points of the game for its biggest lead of the evening. Marietta answered with five straight points as the teams exchanged small leads until
Jenna Andersen (Columbus, Ohio/Thomas Worthington) hit a jumper with 1:22 left in the first quarter to give Marietta the lead for good.
The Pioneers closed out the first period on a 10-2 run and led 25-17 heading into the second quarter. A three-pointer from
Shay Lett (Chillicothe, Ohio/Chillicothe) pushed the lead to 11 points, 29-18, at the 6:41 mark of the second period. Marietta led 37-22 at halftime.
Marietta maintained its double-digit lead throughout the third quarter. Nicki Macke drained a trey on the first possession of the fourth quarter giving MC its biggest lead of the game, 49-32.
In spite of a 1-for-18 night from three-point range, Kenyon still managed to work its way back into the game. A pair of free throws from Bailey Dominguez cut the deficit to seven, 53-46, with 1:22 left in the game. But Kenyon was forced to foul the Pioneers and junior point guard
Amisha Herd (Zanesville, Ohio/West Muskingum) hit two from the charity stripe to ice the game with 16 seconds left.
Herd led all scorers with 11 points, including a 7-for-10 night at the free throw line. Macke chipped in with a career-high 10 points, while Andersen finished with nine points.
Jo Herd-Middlebrooks (Columbus, Ohio/DeSales) grabbed a team-best six rebounds.
Miranda Diesz was Kenyon's only double-digit scorer with 10 points. Ifeoma Archimalo pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
Kenyon dominated the boards outrebounding the Pioneers 53-34. But the Ladies couldn't overcome an all-around cold night of shooting.
Kenyon was 14-of-60 (23.3%) from the floor, 1-of-18 (5.6%) from three-point range and 17-of-25 (68.0%) at the free throw line. Marietta shot 31.8% (14-of-44) from the floor, 35.3% (6-of-17) behind the arc and 68.8% (22-of-32) at the line.
Marietta plays the host school, Anderson University, in the championship game Saturday (Nov. 19) at 4 p.m. Anderson defeated Illinois Tech 70-35 in the first round.
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.
