MARIETTA, Ohio — The men's basketball team stormed out to big lead in the first half, but had to hold off a tough Yellow Jacket squad to collect a 78-73 win over Baldwin Wallace University Saturday (Dec. 10) afternoon. The Pioneers improve to 6-2 overall and 3-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Baldwin Wallace falls to 3-4 on the season and 1-2 in the OAC.
Marietta got out the gate fast as they began with a 12-0 run, fueled by the shooting of
Lovenson Xavier (Naples, Fla./Community School of Naples). He shot 4 of 4, two from three-point range, to give him 10 early points. Baldwin Wallace answered and cut the lead in half when Jake Snyder scored with a layup at the 14:56 mark. Marietta next went on an 7-0 run over a three-minute span to build a double-digit lead, 21-7. Jumpers from
Jayden Bradshaw (Blanchester, Ohio/Fayetteville-Perry),
Jac Alexander (Port Clinton, Ohio/Oak Harbor), and
Ethan Andersen (Boardman, Ohio/Boardman) led the Pioneer rally.
Ray Ellington and Snyder hit consecutive buckets with a little over seven minutes remaining in the half to keep the Yellow Jackets in striking distance, trailing by just seven points. Anthony Mazzeo's triple and Rob Watson III's layup put Baldwin Wallace at their closest margin since the beginning of the game, four points, with four minutes remaining in the half.
David Sanford (Springfield, Ohio/Springfield) calmly busted a three from the right wing to stop the run and Marietta hung on to the lead, 37-29 going into halftime.
Xavier and Sanford hit consecutive baskets to begin the second half, extending the lead to 41-31. The Yellow Jackets showed they still had some life in them as they went on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to two, sparked by seven points from Ashton Price. Snyder's jumper at the 14:41 mark closed the gap to one point and, on their next possession, Watson converted both of his free throw attempts to give the Yellow Jackets a 49-48 lead.
The Pioneers took the lead back on the next possession when Alexander fed Andersen a perfect pass and the big forward laid it in. Over the next seven minutes, the teams traded shots but Marietta still held the lead throughout. Baldwin Wallace began to heat up from the perimeter. Snyder's triple with four minutes remaining gave the Yellow Jackets a one-point lead. Price's three-pointer just one minute later extended the lead to two with 3:13 remaining.
Sanford came up big in the final moments as he hit two consecutive jumpers to put the Pioneers back in the lead.
Sahmi Willoughby (Groveport, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) hit 1 of 2 from the charity stripe to give back the lead to the Pioneers. Then, with 29 seconds remaining, Willoughby all but closed out the game when he got the offensive rebound off of Sanford's missed shot, causing Baldwin Wallace to foul and stop the clock. The Pioneers made good on their four remaining foul shots and won the game 78-73.
Sanford led the Pioneers with 21 points. Xavier scored 18 points, while Alexander chipped in with 15 points. Willoughby finished with nine points and 12 rebounds.
In addition to Snyder's 21 points, Price had 19 points, and Mazzeo finished with 10. Mazzeo and Zoltan Nagy each had seven rebounds for the Yellow Jackets.
Marietta returns home to host John Carroll University on Saturday (Dec. 17). Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. in Ban Johnson Arena.
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.
