CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team got their road schedule off to a good start as they cruised to victory over Case Western Reserve University, 73-45, Monday (Nov. 13) evening. The Pioneers improve to 2-0 on the season and the Spartans slip to 1-1 overall.
"This game was a great step forward for our squad," said Marietta head coach
Kole Vivian. "Case has a really strong team, and we were able to make them work for their shots and finished possessions with rebounds. And our guard play was just too tough tonight. Nice to be starting off our big week with a road win."
Case Western Reserve got the first points on the board as Kayla Characklis scored a layup a minute into the game, but
Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) immediately answered with a jumper to tie it up. After
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) scored on a jumper on the next Pioneer possession, Marietta did not trail for the remainder of the game.
Paige Tolson's (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking) jumper in the paint finished off a 10-0 run, giving Marietta an eight-point advantage. The Spartans fought back with a pair of jumpers from Morgan Micallef to cut into the lead, but Marietta took a 12-9 lead heading into the second quarter.
The second period got off to a slow start as both squads went two minutes without scoring. The drought ended with three-point shot from
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) followed by a jumper from
Adi Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta), pushing the Pioneer lead to eight. Levering's trey at the 5:32 mark put the Pioneers up nine, but yet again, Case Western Reserve hung around. Evie Miller hit from three point range with three minutes left and closed out the half with a layup to cut into the Pioneer advantage. Marietta took a 24-20 lead into halftime.
Hannah Schill (Rootstown, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) got the Pioneers going in the third period with a quick jumper and scored from again from the paint minutes later to push the lead back out to eight. After
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) extended the lead to 10 with a layup, the Spartans answered with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 32-29. That would be as close as they would get as Marietta closed out the period outscoring CWRU 19-9, nine of those points coming from Tolson. The Pioneers led 51-34 entering the fourth quarter.
Schill opened the fourth period with a jumper and Levering followed with a trey to give Marietta its biggest lead of the night, 56-34. The Pioneers cleared their bench soon after and went on to post the 73-45 victory.
Tolson led the Pioneers with 11 points and collected five rebounds. Gribble added 10 points, while Schill and Levering finished with eight points. Smith and Wilson led the way with six rebounds apiece.
Characklis led the Spartans with nine points and seven rebounds.
Marietta has a busy week. They will be back in action on Wednesday (Nov. 15) when they return to the Ban Johnson Arena to battle Penn State Behrend. They are scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip-off. They will finish the week back on the road as they will face Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday (Nov. 18), scheduled for a 2 p.m. tip.
Fans can follow the Pioneers all season long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollegeand @MariettaPioneer on X and Instagram.
