NEW CONCORD, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team outscored rival Muskingum University by 12 points in the second half to come from behind and defeat the Muskies, 74-67, Wednesday (Feb. 15) evening.
With the win, Marietta secures the No. 4 seed and a home game in next week's Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament. The Pioneers improved to 15-9 overall and 9-8 in the OAC. Muskingum falls to 10-14 overall and 6-11 in conference games.
Senior
Jordanna Rauch (Fleming, Ohio/Warren) led four Pioneers in double figures with 15 points. All of her points came from behind the arc as she drained a career-high five three-pointers.
Amisha Herd (Zanesville, Ohio/West Muskingum) scored 13 points, dished out seven assists and had six steals.
Brooke Borich (Beverly, Ohio/Fort Frye) also finished with 13 points, while
Corrie Burkhardt (Zanesville, Ohio/Philo) had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Alexandra Carson led the Muskies with 15 points. Olivia Besancon and Mallory Taylor chipped in with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Stephanie Clark grabbed a team-high nine boards.
After leading for most of the first quarter, the Pioneers et Muskingum tie the game on a layup from Taylor with a little over a minute left in the period. Borich answered with a three-pointer to give Marietta a 22-19 lead heading into the second quarter.
Muskingum opened the second period with an 8-0 run to go up by five points, 27-22, two minutes into the quarter. The Muskies would lead by as many as nine points and took a 38-33 lead into halftime.
The Muskies pushed their lead to double digits early in the third quarter. Besancon nailed a three-pointer to make it 43-33 just over a minute into the third period.
Marietta battled back with a 13-0 run flipping an eight-point deficit into a five-point lead. The final nine points of the run came on a pair of treys from Rauch and another from
Shay Lett (Chillicothe, Ohio/Chillicothe). The Pioneers took a 53-49 advantage into the fourth quarter.
The Pioneers never trailed in the fourth quarter and a three-pointer from Borich with 1:15 left pushed the margin to 10 points, 69-59. Marietta hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final minute to secure the victory.
For the game, Marietta shot 45.0% (27-of-60) from the floor, 38.1% (8-of-21) from three-point range and 63.2% (12-of-19) at the free throw line. Muskingum was 22-of-63 (34.9%) from the floor, 7-of-31 (22.6%) behind the arc and 16-of-23 (69.6%) at the line.
Each team grabbed 40 rebounds. Marietta turned the ball over 13 times, while the Muskies committed 14 turnovers.
Marietta travels to Ada on Saturday (Feb. 18) for a 3:00 p.m. game at No. 5 ranked Ohio Northern 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.
