ALLIANCE, Ohio — Despite playing without their leading scorer, the No. 19 ranked Marietta College Pioneers easily dispatched the University of Mount Union, 78-57, Wednesday (Jan. 10) evening in Alliance.
Marietta improves to 11-3 overall and keeps pace in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 6-2 league record. The Pioneers are in a three-way tie for second place in the conference standings with Baldwin Wallace and Ohio Northern. John Carroll has a one game lead and sits in first place at 6-1. Mount Union slips to 8-6 overall and 4-3 in the OAC.
Pioneer point guard
Dillon Young (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) entered the game needing six points to reach 1,000 points in his career at Marietta. The senior wasted little time achieving the milestone. Young scored MC's first seven points of the game to become the 32nd member of Marietta's 1,000-point Club.
"I'm really happy for Dillon. He has been a tremendous player for us and an even better person and leader. He is the heart and soul of our program and it is wonderful to see him reach this special milestone," Marietta head coach
Jon VanderWal said. "It's also neat that such an unselfish player is being recognized for a scoring accomplishment. It's well deserved."
After trading small leads through the first several minutes of the game, Marietta went on a 15-2 run to open up a 16-point lead, 32-16, with just under five minutes left in the first half.
Young scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half helping the Pioneers to a 42-25 lead at halftime. He finished the game with five rebounds and four assists.
With leading scorer
Anthony Wallace (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) sidelined with an injury suffered during pregame warm-ups, juniors
Kyle Dixon (Poland, Ohio/Poland Seminary) and
DeVaughn Wingard (Warrensville Heights, Ohio/Orange) stepped up on the wing. Dixon poured in a game-high 23 points and had six boards and four assists. Wingard chipped in with 17 points and five rebounds.
Avery Williams (Nashport, Ohio/Tri-Valley) led a dominating performance on the glass for Marietta. The junior post player notched a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with four assists and a pair of blocked shots.
Marietta opened the second half with a 14-2 run to put the game completely out of reach. The Pioneer lead ballooned to as many as 31 points, 74-43, before VanderWal cleared his bench
JJ Kukura led the Purple Raiders with 18 points. Nathan Bower-Malone added 11 points and seven assists.
For the game, Marietta shot 52.8% (28-of-53) from the floor, 57.9% (11-of-19) from three-point range and 78.6% (11-of-14) at the free throw line. The Purple Raiders were 23-of-66 (34.8%) from the floor, 8-of-27 (29.6%) behind the arc and 3-of-4 (75.0%) at the line.
The Pioneers outrebounded Mount Union, 43-27. The Purple Raiders committed just seven turnovers in the game, while Marietta turned the ball over 10 times.
Marietta plays at Heidelberg University on Saturday (Jan. 13). Tip off is set for 3 p.m.
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.
