MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team opened up Winter Weekend with a strong defensive performance at the Ban Johnson Arena Saturday (Jan. 20) afternoon as they shut down Heidelberg University, 84-57. The Pioneers improved to 12-5 on the season and 7-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The Student Princes fell to 3-14 overall and 0-10 in conference games.
"It is always nice to kick off Winter Weekend with a win," said Marietta Head Coach
Kole Vivian. "I was happy that we were able to start the game on a 16-0 run. The second quarter wasn't our best basketball, but the third quarter we got back to being efficient on offense. And our bench really finished off the game well in the fourth quarter. They gave us some momentum heading in a big game on Wednesday."
Marietta started the game with a quick layup from
Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) and proceeded to run up 16 points on Heidelberg over the first nine minutes. The run was fueled by six points and three steals from
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking). Heidelberg broke the drought with a driving layup from Chloe Gilbert and closed out the quarter with four points from Cheyanne Bean to only trail the Pioneers 18-6 going into the second period.
Heidelberg played better in the second period but could not break into the Pioneer lead. Heidelberg's Emma Keto hit the from three-point range but Tolson quickly answered with driving layup. The Pioneers kept getting buckets from the paint as the quarter progressed, getting layups from
Hannah Schill (Rootstown, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban),
Makenzie Wilson (Wapakoneta, Ohio/Wapakoneta),
Sophia Murray (Rocky River, Ohio/Rocky River), and Tolson. Gribble's step back jumper at the 3:13 mark put the Pioneer lead at 20, but Heidelberg finished the half on a 7-0 run and cut the deficit to 39-21 going into halftime.
Marietta took firm control of the game in the third period as they converted five steals into 10 points. Gribble started the 3rd quarter with yet another layup and
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) followed with a pair of jumpers. Later in the period, Tolson converted on another driving layup and the Pioneers led by 30 points at the 3:52 mark.
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) got into the act scoring a layup with less than a minute, but Keto nailed another three in the final seconds. The Pioneers led 64-37 going into the final period.
With the big lead going into the fourth period, Marietta got a chance to give some freshman some minutes.
Layla Lammert (Cincinnati , Ohio/West Clermont) hit from three-point range to give the Pioneers their first points of the quarter.
Mallory Plesac (Galion, Ohio/Colonel Crawford) scored on a pair of layups midway through on her way to a nine-point period.
Emma Rasmussen (Wadsworth, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) nailed a three and scored form the paint to close out the game and the Pioneers cruised to victory, 84-57.
Tolson led Marietta with 19 points and grabbed three steals. Gribble followed with 14 points and three rebounds. Schill scored 11 points and dished out six assists. Grake led Marietta with four rebounds and four steals.
Bean led the Student Princes with 16 points and 12 rebounds
The Pioneers return to the court on Wednesday (Jan. 24) evening as they will host Muskingum University. Tipoff is scheduled for a 7 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.
