MARIETTA, Ohio — The No. 18 ranked Marietta College men's basketball team opened its season with a convincing 92-53 win over Eastern Mennonite University Friday (Nov. 15) evening in the first round of the 49th annual Marietta Shrine Tournament sponsored by BSN Sports and Fairfield Inn & Suites.
The Pioneers will play Mount St. Joseph in the championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Lions beat La Roche University 72-69 in the first game of the annual event. Eastern Mennonite and La Roche will face off in the consolation game at 5 p.m.
EMU got a three-point play from Josh Whelan just over three minutes into the game to take a 7-6 lead, its last of the evening. Marietta responded with a 15-3 run to go in front 22-9 midway through the first half.
Lukas Isaly (Clarington, Ohio/River) started the run with a three-pointer and scored five of his game-high 22 points during the MC spurt.
The Pioneers took a 51-27 lead into halftime and the Royals never got within 25 points the rest of the way. A layup from
Elliott Waller (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan) with 2:31 left in the game gave Marietta its biggest lead, 42 points, 90-48.
Isaly led all scorers with 22 points hitting 4-of-5 from behind the arc.
Jason Ellis (Marion, Ohio/Marion Harding) added 13 points and five rebounds, while
Christian James (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) scored 12 points. Pioneer post players
Caleb Hoyng (Celina, Ohio/Celina),
Kyle Matoszkia (Johnstown, Ohio/Johnstown) and
Jake Montgomery (Westerville, Ohio/Thomas Worthington) each had five rebounds.
DJ Hill had a double-double for the Royals with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Tim Jones scored a team-high 11 points.
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.
