MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's basketball team endured a rough shooting first half to come from behind and defeat #1-ranked Christopher Newport University by the score of 73-69 Saturday (Nov. 11) evening. With the win, Marietta brought home the Shrine Tournament trophy and moves to 2-0 overall on the season. The Captains fall to 1-2 overall.
"The guys just kept battling," Marietta head coach
Jon VanderWal said. "Every game that we have played with these guys has been a total battle. I have a ton of respect for CNU and program that they have built. Tonight, we were fortunate to come out on the right side."
Both teams got off to sluggish starts offensively as it took nearly two minutes to put the first points on the board. CNU's Trey Barber hit a step back jumper to give the Captains the early lead. Marietta finally answered almost a minute later as
David Sanford (Springfield, Ohio/Springfield) hit from three-point range, giving the Pioneers a 3-2 lead. Marietta would go on to miss their next six consecutive shots, but CNU could not capitalize as it would be nearly two minutes until their next points. Ethan Ward's layup gave the Captains a 4-3 lead.
Cooper Parrott's (Willard, Ohio/Willard) trey at the 12-minute mark put the Pioneers briefly back into the lead, but it was short-lived. Christopher Newport responded with a 10-0 run to go in front 17-8 with eight minutes remaining in the half.
The Captains would extend the lead to 11 with the help of a pair of three-pointers from Devin Parrish, but Marietta hung on and chipped away the deficit. A layup from
Frank Waganfeald (Oregon, Ohio/Clay) and a jumper from
De'Ovion Price (River Rouge, Mich./River Rouge) cut the lead to seven with five minutes left in the opening period. Another triple from Parrish pushed the lead back out to 10, but Marietta finished the half on a 6-0 run. Parrott closed out the half with a clutch three-pointer that cut the deficit to four, 28-24, at the break.
"That shot was huge," said Coach VanderWal. "We needed some sort of positivity, some sort of momentum going into halftime. That shot calmed us down a little bit and helped us regroup for the second half."
Parrott started the second half with two free throws to get Marietta within two, 28-26, and after a couple of traded baskets,
Sahmi Willoughby (Groveport, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) hit from three-point range to cut the lead to one. Marietta was able to grab its first lead since early in the first when Willoughby grabbed his fourth offensive rebound of the evening and followed with the lay-in, giving Marietta a 36-35 lead. Christopher Newport regained the lead with a three-pointer, but a jumper from Willoughby and a layup from Waganfeald put Marietta back in the lead, 40-38, with 12:32 left in the game.
Marietta got three-pointers from Waganfeald and Parrott to push the lead to eight, their biggest of the game at that point. CNU came back with a 5-0 run of their own to cut the lead to two with a little less than 10 minutes left. After Barber scored in the paint, Marietta answered with a pair of jumpers from Willoughby.
In the final two minutes, Marietta had the opportunity to extend the lead to nine when Parrott was fouled while scoring on a lay-in. Marietta did not shoot well from the free throw line the entire evening, and after Parrott's subsequent miss, CNU scored five straight points to cut the lead to three with less than a minute remaining. Sanford, Willoughby, and Parrott each were sent to line in the final seconds and each hit one of two free throws, keeping the deficit at two possessions. The final Parrott free throw sealed the victory.
Willoughby finished with 19 points. Parrott added 18 points and Waganfeald added 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Barber led Christopher Newport with 18 points. Parrish scored 13 points, while Toa Hollenbeck and Jahn Hines chipped in with 10 points.
"They (CNU) played great defense," said Parrott after the game. "We knew that we were good enough to beat these guys, but we were going to have to play together. I'm just so proud of these guys, we played so well tonight and we did not back down for a second."
Earlier in the evening, Washington and Jefferson defeated Kenyon College, 75-61. After the game, the all-tournament team was announced. Drew Valentino from Kenyon College and Matt Seidl from Washington and Jefferson joined Parrish, Barber, and Parrott on the team. Willoughby was named the Most Valuable Player.
Marietta will play in the Great Lakes Invitational at Wittenberg University next weekend. The Pioneers will battle Calvin University on Friday (Nov. 17) at 3 p.m. and then Illinois Wesleyan University the following day at 5:30 p.m.
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 X and Instagram.
