MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College men's basketball team cruised to an 87-63 win over Muskingum University on Friday (Feb. 5) evening inside Ban Johnson Arena. The win improves the Pioneers to 2-1 overall and 2-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the loss drops the Fighting Muskies to 2-3 overall and 2-3 in OAC play.
"After a slow start the guys played pretty well tonight," Marietta head coach
Jon VanderWal said. "We had a lot better defensive effort tonight. Give Muskie credit they came out really ready to play, but we were able to wear them down."
Each team scored on their opening two possessions of the game, with
Brett Martin (Massillon, Ohio/Massillon Washington) and
Cooper Parrott (Willard, Ohio/Willard) scoring for Marietta. After the opening two possessions Muskingum went on a 12-4 run and took a 17-9 lead forcing a Marietta timeout.
Out of the break, the Pioneers played stifling defense, and answered with a 9-0 spurt that gave them an 18-17 edge behind a three from
Jalen Greiser (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland). The run spanned four minutes of play and forced a Fighting Muskie timeout.
After the timeout, Marietta continued to stretch its lead with six quick points that provided a 24-17 cushion. The run was sparked by
Tim Kreeger (Delphos, Ohio/Delphos St. Johns), as he scored all six of the Pioneer points. Marietta's defense did not surrender a point during an eight-minute span to provide the Pioneers with a 24-17 lead.
Muskingum trimmed the Marietta edge to 28-25, but the Pioneers answered with an 11-0 run to take a 39-25 advantage, with just over two minutes to play in the half.
Jason Ellis (Marion, Ohio/Marion Harding) got the run started with five consecutive points and Kreeger and
Jac Alexander (Port Clinton, Ohio/Oak Harbor) closed out the run with a pair of layups. Marietta maintained its double-digit lead to hold a 43-31 edge at the intermission.
The Pioneers came out of the locker room ready to play and stretched their lead to 52-31 behind a 9-0 run in the opening three minutes of the half. The run was led by a pair of buckets from Kreeger and highlighted by a three from
Lukas Isaly (Clarington, Ohio/River).
After the teams swapped buckets, Marietta went on a 10-2 run that increased its lead to 62-35 at the 13:14 minute mark of the second half. The run was highlighted by layups from Brennan Crawford and
Kyle Matoszkia (Johnstown, Ohio/Johnstown).
The closest the Fighting Muskies got in the second half was 21, 73-52 with seven minutes to play in the game. The Pioneers closed out the game over the remaining seven minutes of play and won the, 87-63.
Marietta was led by Kreeger. He had a game high 20 points and recorded a career high five steals. Ellis pitched in with 15 points on 3-of-4 shooting from behind the arc. Martin added solid minutes with 11 points, six rebounds and three steals in the game.
The Pioneers will return to the court Saturday (Feb. 6) when they travel to take on Muskingum, with tip off scheduled for 6 p.m.
Fans can follow all of 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.
