MARIETTA, Ohio — No. 10 ranked Ohio Northern University overcame a slow start to defeat Marietta College by the score of 79-65 Saturday (Jan. 7) afternoon in Ohio Athletic Conference women's basketball action. The Polar Bears stay perfect on the season with a 13-0 record, 6-0 in the OAC. Marietta slips to 7-6 on the season and 1-5 in league play.
ONU scored first on a pair of free throws from Amy Bullimore. Marietta responded with a 9-0 run.
Shay Lett (Chillicothe, Ohio/Chillicothe), making her first career start, drained the first of her five three-pointers to cap the early run.
Lett finished with a career-high 19 points to lead the Pioneers. She also grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists while converting 5-of-10 attempts from behind the arc.
Alexis Enochs (Beverly, Ohio/Fort Frye) also set a new career-best with 14 points, including a pair of three-pointers.
Corrie Burkhardt (Zanesville, Ohio/Philo) chipped in with 13 points and a team-best eight rebounds, while senior
Jordanna Rauch (Fleming, Ohio/Warren) added 10 points.
The Polar Bears chipped away at the Marietta lead and a trey from Britt Lauck knotted the score at 9-9, with 3:43 left in the first quarter. An old-fashioned three-point play from Cheyenne Raker with two seconds left in the period put ONU in front for good, 15-12.
Ohio Northern scored the first seven points of the second quarter to push its lead into double digits, 22-12. The Polar Bears outscored Marietta 21-10 in the second period and lead 36-22 at halftime.
Marietta managed to get within eight points, 57-49, on a layup from Burkhardt with 1:44 left in the third quarter. But the Pioneers were whistled for a foul in the final seconds of the period and Courtney Cramer hit both free throws to push the lead back into double figures, where it would stay for the rest of the afternoon.
Lauck led all scorers with 21 points. Bullimore and Emily Mescher each finished with 14 points for the Polar Bears. Amauria Campbell grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
For the game, Marietta shot 35.9% (23-of-64) from the floor, 37.5% (9-of-24) from three-point land and 76.9% (10-of-13) at the free throw line. The Polar Bears were 28-of-60 (46.7%) from the floor, 7-of-16 (43.8%) behind the arc and 16-of-18 (88.9%) at the line.
Ohio Northern won the rebounding battle, 42-33. The Polar Bears turned the ball over 14 times, while Marietta committed 12 turnovers in the game.
Marietta travels to Alliance on Wednesday (Jan. 11) for a 7:30 p.m. game at the University of Mount Union. 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.
