MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team assured itself of the program's first winning season in 22 years with a 57-42 victory over Wilmington College Saturday (Feb. 11) afternoon in Ban Johnson Arena.
The Pioneers are 14-9 overall and 8-8 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The 14 wins are the most for Marietta since winning 20 games in 1989-90. Marietta is also a step closer to securing the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament and receiving a first round bye.
Wilmington (15-8 overall and 11-5 OAC) was without the services of Mackenzie Campbell, the second leading scorer in the OAC, and struggled on offense all afternoon.
The Quakers hit a three-pointer to open the game and then managed just three more field goals in the first half and trailed 25-13 at halftime. Wilmington shot a lowly 18% in the first half and committed 16 turnovers.
Fortunately for the Quakers, Marietta was only slightly better over the first 20 minutes. The Pioneers shot 24% from the floor but only turned the ball over five times.
Brooke Borich (Beverly, Ohio/Fort Frye) drained a three-pointer midway through the third period to extend the Marietta lead to 22 points, 38-16.
The Quakers, in a battle for one of the top two OAC Tournament seeds, gradually worked themselves back into the game. Wilmington outscored Marietta 10-2 over the last five minutes of the third period cutting the Pioneers lead to 14 points, 40-26.
Wilmington continued its comeback bid in the fourth quarter. The Quakers opened the final period with a 7-1 run trimming the deficit to eight points, 41-33, with seven minutes left in the game.
Aided by three Quaker fouls, Marietta went on a 10-2 run pushing the lead back to 16 points, 51-35, with just over four minutes remaining and putting the game away. The Pioneers were 6-of-6 at the free throw line during the run and also received a pair of layups from
Alexis Enochs (Beverly, Ohio/Fort Frye) and
Corrie Burkhardt (Zanesville, Ohio/Philo).
Amisha Herd (Zanesville, Ohio/West Muskingum) led the Pioneers with 11 points and 13 rebounds. In addition to the double-double, Herd had seven steals in the game. Enochs finished with 11 points and eight boards, while Burkhardt had 10 points, six rebounds and four steals.
Ashley Andracki was the lone Quaker in double figures with 11 points. Savannah Hooper added eight points, while Mary Moyer pulled down 11 rebounds.
For the game, Marietta shot 29.0% (20-of-69) from the floor, 14.3% (3-of-21) from three-point range and 82.4% (14-of-17) at the free throw line. Wilmington was 16-of-55 (29.1%) from the floor, 6-of-23 (26.1%) behind the arc and 4-of-8 (50.0%) at the line.
Marietta edged the Quakers on the glass, 49-44. Wilmington committed 30 turnovers in the game, while the Pioneers turned the ball over 16 times.
Marietta travels to New Concord on Wednesday (Feb. 15) for a 7:30 p.m. game at rival Muskingum University. 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.
