WILMINGTON, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team put together a strong first half and cruised to an important conference victory on the road, defeating Wilmington College 69-53 Saturday (Jan. 27) afternoon. Marietta improves to 14-5 overall and 9-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Wilmington falls to 5-13 on the season and 3-9 in the OAC.
"We played a really good first half in a tough place," said Marietta Head Coach
Kole Vivian. "Then we got challenged in the third and were able to make enough plays. We had too many turnovers, but Wilmington deserves credit for that. But we are improving for sure."
After spotting the Quakers four points to begin the game, Marietta tied the game with layups from
Makenzie Wilson (Wapakoneta, Ohio/Wapakoneta) and
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking). The Pioneers then took a five-point lead after going 5-for-6 from the free throw line. Later in the period, Wilson answered a Cassidy Lovett layup with one of her own to put the lead at 11-6. Marietta finished the quarter with a 12-0 run, fueled by a pair of three-pointer from
Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) and the Pioneers took a 21-6 lead into the second quarter.
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) quickly go the second quarter rolling with a trey to put Marietta lead at 18. With less than five minutes remaining in the half,
Madison Cecil (Centerburg, Ohio/Highland) stole the ball from the Quakers and fed a perfect pass to
Hannah Schill (Rootstown, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) who then followed with a fast-break layup, putting the score at 30-11. Marietta finished the quarter with layups from Tolson and
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta).
Adi Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) nailed a three-pointer in the closing seconds and the Pioneers led 37-17 at halftime.
Wilmington proved they had no quit in them as they began the third quarter on an 11-0 run, fueled by five points from Zahkyria Walker which cut the Pioneer lead to nine points. The Pioneers steadily regained their composure and finished the half on a 12-4 run, getting a pair of buckets from Kroft. Schill finished the quarter hitting a pair of free throws and the Pioneers led 56-39 going into in the fourth quarter.
The Pioneers did enough in the fourth period to keep the comfortable lead, answer bucket for bucket. Gribble hot from three-point range and Wilson converted a trio of layups. Wilmington could not overcome and Pioneers would claim the 69-53 victory.
Tolson led the Pioneers with 15 points and collected eight rebounds. Wilson finished with 12 points and five rebounds.
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) led the Pioneers on the boards with 10 rebounds.
Wilmington's Lovett led all scorers with 21 points and finished with a game-high 12 rebounds in the loss.
Marietta returns to the Ban Johnson Arena for a conference bout on Wednesday (Jan. 27) as they do battle with Capital University. Tipoff is scheduled for a 7 p.m.
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.
