GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — It was fitting that the last two points that
Frank Waganfeald (Oregon, Ohio/Clay) scored was on a dunk. That bucket was the exclamation point on a 27-point performance, helping secure a 96-71 Marietta College win over Hope College Saturday (Nov. 23) afternoon in the Great Lakes Invitational hosted by Calvin University. The Pioneers redeemed their loss from the day prior are now 4-1 on the season. Hope drops to 2-3 overall after an 0-2 weekend.
"Extremely proud of our guys and their mentality after coming off a really rough day on Friday," Marietta head coach
Jon VanderWal said. "Our guys responded with a phenomenal effort today and played extremely well. I think we have a very resilient group and I'm excited to see if they can build off of this weekend's experience."
Waganfeald got the Pioneer offense going early, scoring five points off a pair of jumpers. After the Flying Dutchmen cut the lead to two,
De'Ovion Price (River Rouge, Mich./River Rouge) fired off a pair jumpers to give Marietta an 11-7 lead. The Pioneers began to extend the lead as the half rolled on and led by 10 after
Jayden Bradshaw's (Blanchester, Ohio/Fayetteville-Perry) layup and bonus free throw at the 10:18 mark of the half.
After some traded possessions, the Pioneers got treys from Bradshaw, Waganfeald, and
Jake Singleton (Senecaville, Ohio/Meadowbrook) to give them a 40-22 lead with less than six minutes. Bradshaw stayed hot for Marietta as he poured in nine of the final 15 Pioneer points of the half, giving them 55-36 lead at halftime.
In second half action, after
Jack Main (Winter Garden, Fla./West Orange) nailed his second three-pointer of the half, Hope attempted to get back into the contest. The Flying Dutchmen got hot from the perimeter, scoring four times from beyond the arc on the way to a 16-6 run. Simon Nuehaus's three-pointer at the 9:13 mark cut the lead to nine points, but that would be as close as Hope would get for the remainder of the game. Marietta answered with a 7-0 run, fueled by five points from Bradshaw, to effectively put the game out of reach.
Waganfeald's dunk with less than three minutes was followed by a time out that both teams used to empty the benches, and when the final buzzer sounded, Marietta claimed a 96-71 victory.
Waganfeald led all scorers with 27 points to go along with six rebounds and four steals. Bradshaw finished with 22 points and was named to the Great Lakes Invitational All-Invitational Team. Main scored 14 points in the game. Price scored 11 points and dished out five assists.
Gabe Quillan led Hope with 25 points and nine rebounds. Brady Miller added 11 points.
Marietta will enjoy a lengthy holiday break and then return to action at home to host Wilmington College on Saturday, December 7th. Tip-off is scheduled for a 4:00 p.m. in Ban Johnson Arena, following the women's basketball matchup at 2:00 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.
