MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College women's basketball team returned home on Wednesday (Nov. 13) evening for the very first game at the Ban Johnson Arena with
Jenna Andersen as head coach. The debut was unsuccessful as the Pioneers were defeated by Mount St. Joseph University, 83-69. With the loss, the Pioneers fell to 1-1. The victory put the Lions overall record to 2-0.
"Give credit to them because they have a solid team," said Andersen. "They are tall and athletic and they brought back their three top scorers from last year. But the story of the game is they scored 26 points from the foul line. It's a different game if we keep them off of the foul line."
The Lions started quickly as they established their inside game, feeding the ball in the paint to Madison Drummonds who scored the first points.
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking) answered a minute later with a driving layup, but Mount St. Joseph answered with six straight points to push the lead to 8-2. The Pioneers chipped away at the margin and tied it up at the 3:46 mark as Tolson nailed a three-pointer. The Lions kept finding themselves heading to the free throw line in the quarter and made the best of it, going 11 of 12 from the stripe. Karlee Mills nailed a jumper in the final minute and Mount St. Joseph ended the quarter leading 25-19.
The Lions began the second quarter on a 7-0 run and extended the lead to 13. Marietta stayed close as
Ella McMillen (Shreve, Ohio/West Holmes) hit a mid-range jumper and
Kelsey Harlan (Sardis, Ohio/River) scored from the inside.
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) followed up with a lay in and the Pioneers got the deficit to single digits. The Lions, though, started to get hot from the perimeter, hitting a trio of shots from behind the arc and led by 18 points with less than three minutes left in the half.
TJ Carpenter (Jackson, Ohio/Jackson) came off the bench and provided a pair of buckets but the Pioneers went into intermission trailing 51-36.
Adi Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) provided the Pioneers with a lift in the third quarter, pouring in seven points and cutting the Lion lead to 11. The Lions, though, withstood that mini run and then scored eight of their own over the next few minutes to lead 62-45 at the 2:22 mark.
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) hit two big shots to close out the quarter and the Pioneers ended the third trailing 64-51.
Marietta got a couple of shots from Tolson to begin the final period, but the differential was too big to overcome. Hill and McMillen hit from three-point range and
Amelia Uhrig (Chillicothe, Ohio/Unioto) scored on a tipin, but in the end, the Pioneers would fall to defeat, 83-69.
The Pioneers were led by Tolson with 19 points and six steals. Hill finished with 16 points. Kroft led the way eight rebounds.
Mills led all scorers with 23 points for the Lions. Drummonds and Murphy each finished with 18 points apiece.
"I like the way we battled back and played hard in the second half," concluded coach Andersen. "But there is a lot that we need to get better at before this Saturday."
Marietta will return to the court this Saturday (Nov. 17) afternoon as they will travel to Saint Vincent College for a non-conference matchup, with tip off scheduled for 1 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.
