MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team battled back and forth with a tough Muskingum squad, but pulled away late and collected a 64-51 victory on Wednesday (Jan. 24) evening in Ban Johnson Arena. The Pioneers improve to 13-5 on the season and 8-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Muskingum slips to 8-10 overall and 3-8 in conference games.
"I am really proud of how we stepped up to make shots in the second half," said Marietta head coach
Kole Vivian. "We did a lot of good things in the first half, but we couldn't get the ball in the hoop. Levering started it off with a made 3pt shot early, and then Adi really came on strong. Muskingum is improving as a program, so to be able to put up 42 points in the second half, that means we were doing some great stuff on offense."
Both teams struggled to get their respective offenses going in the first quarter but
Makenzie Wilson (Wapakoneta, Ohio/Wapakoneta) got the Pioneers on the board first with a shot from the paint.
Ally Grake's (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) driving layup at the 7:33 mark put the Pioneer lead at 4-2, but both teams would go scoreless for the next two minutes. Caitlyn DeMassimo's trey broke the drought and gave Muskingum their first lead of the contest. The Muskies hit twice more from behind the arc and led by four with three minutes remaining in the quarter. Late jumpers from
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking) and
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) cut into the lead but Muskingum led 13-11 heading into the second quarter.
Courtney Hivick scored the first bucket of the second quarter and, after Claudia Harrington hit from three-point range, the Muskies led by five with 6:44 remaining in the half. Marietta answered with a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to take back the lead at 22-18. Harrington scored again with a minute left and nailed a turn-around jumper as the final seconds ticked off the clock and both teams took a 22-22 tie into halftime.
Both teams traded shots through a back and forth third quarter that saw nine lead changes. Levering hit a three-pointer to begin the quarter. DeMassimo hit from three-point range with 7:33 remaining to tie it back up at 27. After trading scoring possessions, the Muskies regained the lead as Lizzy Allen nailed a three-pointer. The lead would change again over the next five possessions, but
Adi Hill's (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) jumper at the 2:20 mark put Marietta in the lead for remainder of the quarter. Tolson finished the quarter with a driving layup and the Pioneers led 44-38 entering the fourth quarter.
Hill gave the Pioneers a boost in the fourth quarter as she nailed three jumpers, two from behind the arc, to give Marietta their biggest lead of the game at that point, nine points, with 5:20 remaining. DeMassimo cut the lead to seven with a pair of jumpers, but Muskingum could get no closer. The Muskies were forced to foul Marietta to stop the clock and the Pioneers answered by going 7-of-8 from the foul line. Marietta would go to claim their fourth straight victory, defeating the Muskies 64-51.
Hill led the Pioneers with 12 points and collected four rebounds. Gribble, Levering, and Tolson all finished with 10 points apiece. Levering led with five rebounds and Wilson blocked three shots.
Caitlyn DeMassimo led all scorers with 18 points and collected nine rebounds. Harrington, Allen, and Mckinzie Linscott chipped in with eight points apiece.
Marietta is back in action on Saturday (Jan. 27) when they travel to battle Wilmington College with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m. tipoff.
Fans can follow the Pioneers all season long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on X and Instagram.
