MARIETTA, Ohio — It was a celebratory evening at Ban Johnson Arena Wednesday (Feb. 9) as the Marietta College women's basketball team honored their four senior ballplayers. Devin Hefner (Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg South), Kate Liston (Little Hocking, Ohio/Warren Local), Jill Congrove (Circleville, Ohio/Logan Elm), and Kelsie Warnock (Proctorville, Ohio/Fairland) were all honored for their long careers as a tremendous presentation played from the jumbotron. After those festivities ended, the Pioneers closed out the home portion of their regular season with a decisive Ohio Athletic Conference victory over Mount Union, 58-33.
The Pioneers improved to 18-4 on the season and 11-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The Purple Raiders fell to 7-12 overall and 4-9 in conference games.
"That was a special win", said Marietta head coach Kole Vivian. "You never know what you're going to get on Senior night because there's so much emotion going on, but the stuff they did tonight really set the tone. Everybody brought something good tonight".
Marietta started the game on a 10-0 run as Mount Union didn't score for the first 7 minutes. Congrove paced the PIos with 6 points in the first quarter. Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) canned a three pointer at the 4:38 mark of the 2nd quarter to extend the Marietta lead to 18 points. Mount Union was only able to shoot 13% from the field in the first half and the Pioneers took a 32-15 lead into halftime
Gribble, who finished with a game high 15 points, started the 3rd quarter with two consecutive treys and the Pioneers started to distance themselves from the pack. Erin Hahn's (Louisville, Ohio/Louisville) layup to begin the 4th quarter gave her a double-double on the evening, finishing with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Marietta will hit the road for the first of three road games to close out the regular season. The Pioneers will travel to Wilmington this Saturday (Feb. 12) for a 2pm clash.
"When we defend like we did tonight", said Coach Vivian, "we are going to be a tough team to beat"
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.
