MARIETTA, Ohio — The No. 24 ranked Marietta College men's basketball team is in search of its fourth-straight trip to the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship game. The Pioneers won the tournament title each of the last two seasons.
The No. 2 seeded Pioneers (21-5) and No. 3 seed Ohio Northern (18-8) will face off at 8 p.m. in Ban Johnson Arena on Thursday (Feb. 22). Marietta defeated No. 7 seed Wilmington 86-71 in the first round, while the Polar Bears were 81-60 winners over No. 6 Capital on Tuesday.
Top-seeded John Carroll hosts No. 4 Baldwin Wallace in the other semifinal. The Blue Streaks defeated No. 8 Heidelberg 86-65 in their tournament opener, while Baldwin Wallace downed No. 5 Mount Union 84-60 in the quarterfinals.
The two semifinal winners will face off in the championship game on Saturday at the highest remaining seed.
Marietta swept the season series from Ohio Northern.
Kyle Dixon (Poland, Ohio/Poland Seminary) scored a career-high 28 points in the Pioneers 90-86 win at home in January.
Anthony Wallace (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) scored 14 points and
Avery Williams (Nashport, Ohio/Tri-Valley) added 13.
The Pioneers outscored Ohio Northern by 24 points in the second half to beat the Polar Bears 88-68 in Ada in the regular season finale. Senior
Dillon Young (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) poured in a career-high 32 points, including 20 in the second half. Dixon and Wallace scored 18 and 14 points, respectively.
Pioneer head coach
Jon VanderWal, in his 11th season at the helm, needs two more wins to tie Phil Roach as the winningest coach in program history. VanderWal has 211 wins, while Roach finished his time at Marietta with 213 victories.
Young leads Marietta averaging 14.2 points per game. The reigning OAC Player of the Week, he is tops on the team in total field goals (126), three-point field goals (50) and assists (100).
Four other Pioneers are scoring in double figures. Dixon averages 13.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per night. Wallace averages 13.1 points and 3.5 rebounds. Williams is next with 11.7 points and leads the team with 7.8 rebounds per outing.
DeVaughn Wingard (Warrensville Heights, Ohio/Orange) rounds out the double-digit scorers averaging 10.3 points and 3.7 boards.
Rich Bensman is in his second season as the Polar Bear head coach. ONU features two of the league's leading scorers in senior Nate Burger and junior Ryan Bruns. Both are averaging 24.7 points per game.
Burger leads the OAC with 142 assists and ranks second in scoring. Bruns, who has missed the last three games, is questionable for Thursday. The ONU big man ranks second in the OAC averaging 9.0 rebounds per game.
Senior Joey DiOrio averages 12.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per night. He is second on the team with 76 three-pointers.
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.
