MARIETTA, Ohio – Marietta College opens play in the Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament at home in Ban Johnson Arena on Tuesday (Feb. 23) at 7:30 p.m. The Pioneers enter the tournament seeded first with an overall record of 23-2 (17-1 OAC) and will take on the No. 8 seeded Wilmington College Quakers (5-18 overall, 4-14 OAC) in the OAC quarterfinals.
The Pioneers are looking for their third OAC Tournament title in the last six years and the OAC's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Currently on a 15-game winning streak, Marietta is the fourth team to post a 17-1 OAC regular season record since the league moved to an 18-game conference schedule in 1989-90; no school has gone undefeated.
Marietta swept the season series from the Quakers with an 81-72 win at home and a 98-85 victory at Wilmington. These two teams met in the first round of the OAC Tournament two years ago in Ban Johnson with Wilmington eliminating the Pioneers in overtime, 91-82.
Junior
A.J. Edwards (Twinsburg, Ohio/Twinsburg) leads the Pioneers in scoring and rebounding averaging 17.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. Edwards ranks second in the OAC with a 58.6% field goals percentage and is second in rebounds (8.6 per game).
Three other Pioneers average in double figures with
Luis Garcia (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian) at 14.2 ppg,
Dillon Young (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) at 12.3 ppg and
Eddy Grenert (Wooster, Ohio/Triway) at 10.7 ppg. Young currently leads the conference in three-point shooting converting 49.2% of his shots from behind the arc.
Wilmington's leading scorer is senior forward Zach McCorkle with an average of 14.4 points per game. McCorkle is also the leading rebounder averaging 6.5 boards per game. Sophomore guard Christian Jones is in double figures scoring 13.0 points per game.
Tuesday's other first round games include No. 7 Capital (8-10) at No. 2 John Carroll (15-3), No. 6 Heidelberg (9-9) at No. 3 Mount Union (13-5), and No. 5 Ohio Northern (9-9) at No. 4 Baldwin Wallace (10-8).
The winner of the Marietta/Wilmington game will continue on to play the winner of the Baldwin Wallace/Ohio Northern game in the semifinals on Thursday (Feb. 25). The championship game is set for Saturday (Feb. 27) at the highest remaining seed.
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.
