MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College women's basketball team struggled through a tough second quarter only come on strong late and defeat Washington and Jefferson, 63-59, on Wednesday (Dec. 18) evening. With the win the Pioneers improve to 6-2 overall, and with the loss the Presidents fall to 9-2 overall.
"We really focused on being a tougher team this week," said Marietta head coach
Jenna Andersen. "I told the team today that I'm going to need everything you got for all 40 minutes. We did struggle in the first half, but we stayed true to the game plan. We started to hit the shots in the second half, thanks to Paige (Tolson), and the defense followed. Proud of the girls that they could bounce back to beat a tough W&J team."
Marietta jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead in the first quarter as
Adi Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) opened the contest with a three-pointer and
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) followed with a pair of layups. W&J's Stellanie Loutsion helped guide the Presidents back as she hit consecutive three-pointers, cutting the lead to three.
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking), who went on to notch a career-high in points on the evening, nailed a three-pointer at the 4:09 mark to push the Pioneer lead out to eight. Loutsion answered with a pair of driving layups and Meghan Dryburgh's layup with less than a minute left got the President to within one point of the lead. Hill answered quick with a three-pointer and the Pioneers took an 18-14 lead going into the second quarter.
Marietta got buckets from Tolson and Hill early in the second but were kept scoreless for the final five minutes of the half. Luckily, the Presidents struggled a bit during that stretch, but still took their first lead of the contest as Halena Hill buried a three-pointer with 2:58 remaining in the half. W&J got one more point as Jacey Mullin hit 1-of-2 free throws and the Pioneers went into intermission with a 24-22 deficit.
Both teams traded baskets for the first couple of minutes of the third quarter and the Presidents retained their slim margin. The Presidents then received clutch three-pointers from Adalynn Cherry and Loutsion to push the lead to five. The Pioneers countered as Tolson began to aggressively drive the lane, converting on several driving layups. She converted two layups in the final minute, giving her 13 points in the quarter and cutting the lead to 43-42 as the third quarter ended.
Both teams missed their first two shots of the final period, but Marietta retook the lead at the 8:35 mark as Tolson drove the lane and dished to Kroft for a layup. Tolson and Kroft hooked up again the next time down the floor in the same fashion, putting the Pioneers up four points. Cherry and Dryburgh answered with points from the paint to tie it back up, and Cherry's three-pointer at the 5:10 mark gave W&J a 50-49 lead. Tolson exploded for a seven-point run of her own, converting a layup and nailing a three-pointer, and the Pioneers led by six point with two minutes remaining. W&J was forced to foul to stop the clock and Tolson calmly hit all six of her free throw attempts in the final period. Dryburgh's jumper with three seconds left cut the lead to three but
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) iced the game with a free throw and the Pioneers closed out with a 63-59 victory.
The Pioneers were led by Tolson's career-high 32 points and she also dished out four assists. Hill provided 13 points and led the Pioneers with seven rebounds. Kroft hit all six of her shots from the floor and finished with 12 points.
Loutsion led the Presidents with 22 points and Dryburgh scored 10 points and provided 21 rebounds in the loss.
Marietta has one more game before they take off for the Christmas holiday as they travel to battle Otterbein University this Saturday (Dec.21). Tipoff is scheduled for 2 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.
