MARIETTA, Ohio — The women's basketball team fought back from a six-point deficit to take the lead with 2:41 remaining, but could not hold on as Baldwin Wallace University finished on a 10-2 run and defeated Marietta College 59-53 Saturday (Jan. 6) afternoon. The loss drops Marietta to 9-4 overall and 4-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Baldwin Wallace improves to 10-3 on the season and 6-0 in conference games.
"Credit to BW, they deserved to win with how they finished the game," Marietta head coach
Kole Vivian said. "We just couldn't get enough stops at the end. But we will learn from this and be better for it."
The Pioneers got off to quick start as
Hannah Schill (Rootstown, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) drove the lane scoring on a driving layup and
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) followed with a jump shot, giving the Pioneers a 4-0 lead. Later in the quarter, Baldwin Wallace fought back tie the game at six as Leah Riley hit from three-point range. BW would later take their first lead as they would go on a 7-0 run over the next couple of minutes. Carolyn Wochele's three-pointer gave BW a 13-7 advantage. Levering answered for the Pioneers with a trey and
Sophia Murray's (Rocky River, Ohio/Rocky River) jumper cut the lead to 13-12 with three minutes left in the period. The Yellow Jackets finished the quarter with the final five points, the last bucket coming from Bella Vaillant's offensive rebound and put-back layup. At the end of one quarter, Baldwin Wallace led 17-12.
The second quarter saw Marietta fight back quickly to tie as
Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) scored on a jumper and
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking) converted a layup and bonus free throw, tying the game at 17. Emily Irwin put BW back into the lead with a trey at the 6:02 mark, but the Pioneers roared back with buckets from
Makenzie Wilson (Wapakoneta, Ohio/Wapakoneta),
Madison Cecil (Centerburg, Ohio/Highland),
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta), and Murray to give them a five-point lead. After a pair of late Yellow Jacket free throws cut the lead to three, Caely Ressler's three-pointer with :33 remaining tied the game at 27 and that's where both teams would stay going into intermission.
The two teams traded shots to begin the third quarter, but Baldwin Wallace pushed out to lead by five as Irwin hit from the perimeter and Vaillant hit from the low-post. Marietta used the free throw line to close the gap as Cecil hit a pair and Murray hit 1-of-2, tying the game back at 34. Irwin answered again from three-point range to give BW back the lead, but Levering's jumper with 45 seconds remaining put the deficit at one. The final score of the quarter came as Kira Philpot scored a layup in the final seconds to give the Yellow Jackets a 42-39 lead going into the final period.
Neither team managed much offense in the fourth quarter until Irwin converted a floating jump shot three and half minutes in. After falling behind by six points, Marietta started their late comeback as Schill scored a layup and Gribble hit a three-pointer. After getting fouled, Murray made both of her free throw attempts to tie the game, 50-50. Wilson made 1-of-2 free throws at the 2:41 mark, giving the Pioneers a one-point lead, but Baldwin Wallace would close out with that 10-2 run and would go on to claim the conference victory.
Levering led Marietta with 13 points and three blocks and collected seven rebounds. Murray came off the bench and scored nine points. Wilson finished with six points, 11 rebounds, and two assists.
Irwin paced the Yellow Jackets with 13 points to go along with three assists. Ressler ended with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Marietta hosts OAC foe Otterbein University next Wednesday (Jan. 10) for a 7 p.m. tip-off.
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.
