MARIETTA, Ohio — With a fourth straight Ohio Athletic Conference regular season title under its belt, the Marietta College men's basketball team is now focused on the OAC Tournament crown and the an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The Pioneers (20-5, 14-4 OAC), ranked 24th in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25, are seeded second in the OAC Tournament and will host No. 7 seed Wilmington College (11-13, 7-11 OAC) Tuesday (Feb. 20) in the quarterfinal round. Tip off in Ban Johnson Arena is set for 8 p.m.
John Carroll (20-5, 14-4 OAC) earned the top seed and will host No. 8 seed Heidelberg (11-14, 7-11 OAC). No. 3 Ohio Northern (17-8, 12-6 OAC) hosts No. 6 Capital (12-13, 8-10 OAC) and No. 4 Baldwin Wallace (17-8, 11-7 OAC) hosts No. 5 Mount Union (13-12, 9-9 OAC) in the other quarterfinal matchups.
The semifinals are slated for Thursday and the championship game will be on Saturday.
Marietta has won 19 of the last 20 meetings with the Quakers including the last nine in a row.
This season the Pioneers won at Wilmington, 100-71, back in December.
Anthony Wallace (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) led five MC players in double figures with 16 points. In its final home game of the regular season, Marietta downed the Quakers 80-65 nine days ago.
Avery Williams (Nashport, Ohio/Tri-Valley) posted a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Navy Blue and White.
Pioneer head coach
Jon VanderWal, in his 11th season at the helm, enters the OAC Tournament with a high-powered offense that features five players averaging in double figures.
Senior point guard
Dillon Young (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) leads Marietta averaging 14.2 points per game. Young, the reigning OAC Player of the Week, is tops on the team in total field goals (121), three-point field goals (49) and assists (98).
A quartet of juniors follows Young. Wallace is averaging 13.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per night.
Kyle Dixon (Poland, Ohio/Poland Seminary) averages 13.1 points and 5.3 rebounds. Williams is next with 11.6 points and leads the team with 7.7 rebounds per outing.
DeVaughn Wingard (Warrensville Heights, Ohio/Orange) rounds out the double-digit scorers averaging 10.4 points and 3.7 boards.
Wilmington, under the direction of eleventh-year head coach KC Hunt, has three players scoring in double figures. Senior Christian Jones leads the way averaging 19.1 points per game. Fellow senior Nathan Scott averages 12.3 points and is tied for the team lead with 4.0 rebounds per night. Junior Will Patrick averages 12.0 points per outing, while classmate Andrew Russell averages 9.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.
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.
