NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The Marietta College men's basketball team led start to finish as the Pioneers posted a 94-73 win over Berea College Sunday (Dec. 29) afternoon in the Music City Classic. Marietta improves to 6-3 on the season while Berea falls to 4-6 overall.
"It was a great team effort today. We dodged some foul trouble in the first half and had some guys step up off the bench," Marietta head coach
Jon VanderWal said. "It was great to see a much better effort by our guys on the glass today. We will definitely need that mentality tomorrow."
Jake Singleton (Senecaville, Ohio/Meadowbrook) hit a pair of three-pointers, both assisted by
De'Ovion Price (River Rouge, Mich./River Rouge), to give Marietta the early 6-0 lead. The Pioneers never trailed in the game. Singleton finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, while Price notched six assists.
Marietta continued its barrage of three-pointers connecting on 16 triples in the game.
Danny Flood (Valley City, Ohio/Buckeye) led the attack draining seven shots from beyond the arc.
The Pioneers extended the lead to double figures, 18-8, on a layup from
Frank Waganfeald (Oregon, Ohio/Clay) with 13:55 left in the opening period. A three-pointer from Waganfeald four minutes later pushed the margin to 15 points.
Jayden Bradshaw (Blanchester, Ohio/Fayetteville-Perry) sank a three-pointer in the final seconds of the first half giving Marietta a 17-point lead, 48-31, at halftime.
Berea regrouped at halftime and used a 20-7 run to cutting the deficit to eight points, 62-54, with 13:04 left in the game. Back-to-back buckets, a triple from Flood and a tip-in from Waganfeald, pushed the lead back into double digits where it stayed for the remainder of the game.
Another three-pointer from Flood gave Marietta its biggest lead of the game, 89-66, with 3:21 left on the clock. Flood finished with a team-high 23 points.
Waganfeald was a perfect 8-for-8 from the floor, including 3-for-3 from behind the arc scoring a team-high 23 points. Bradshaw added 16 points and seven rebounds.
Berea's Trey Minter led all scorers with 26 points to go along with five assists. Demetris Phillips finished with 15 points and a team-best six rebounds.
Marietta plays the University of Lynchburg in Nashville on Monday (Dec. 30) at 12:00 p.m. (EST).
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.
