MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team closed out the home portion of their regular season Saturday (Feb. 10) afternoon as they defeated John Carroll University, 87-69. The win was Marietta's ninth consecutive. The Pioneers also honored their six senior ballplayers during the pregame.
Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin),
Hannah Schill (Rootstown, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban),
Makenzie Wilson (Wapakoneta, Ohio/Wapakoneta),
Madison Cecil (Centerburg, Ohio/Highland),
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty), and
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) were all honored for their fantastic careers.
The Pioneers improved to 18-5 on the season and 13-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The Blue Streaks fell to 12-11 overall and 7-9 in conference games.
"Senior Day is always emotional, especially when we have a Senior Class as special and accomplished as this group", said Marietta head coach
Kole Vivian. "We had some early emotion and we weren't as locked in as we have been over the last month, but we got locked in towards the end of third. Our seniors all contributed to us in a big way to get this win."
Marietta and John Carroll traded baskets for the first four minutes of the quarter. Wilson's layup opened the scoring but Ava Ryncarz answered with a jumper. Cecil's three-pointer was answered by a triple by Hallie Landies. The Pioneers took the lead at the 5:25 mark as
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) canned a three-pointer from the left wing and, later in the quarter, canned a pull-up jumper to push the lead to 17-12. John Carroll closed out with a pair of buckets and trailed 20-19 going into the second period.
The Pioneers shot over 50% from the field in the second quarter as they began to methodically expand the lead. Gribble hit a three-pointer in the opening minute and followed with a jumper to keep the Pioneer lead at five. Levering scored five points over the next two possessions and
Adi Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) followed with a step-back three-pointer to push the Pioneer lead to nine. After some traded shots, Ryncarz put in a buzzer-beating three-pointer, cutting the Marietta lead to 41-37 lead going into halftime.
The two teams battled into the first five minutes of the third period, trading shot for shot. Abigail Rosol opened the scoring for the Blue Streaks with a layup, but Levering answered with a layup. Maddie Pietrowski scored a basket but Grake answered with a three-point to extend the Pioneer lead to five. Hill's three-pointer at the 3:34 mark extended the lead back out to nine, but John Carroll answered with five points from Ryncarz to cut the advantage to 58-55. The Pioneers closed out the period going 4-for-4 from the free throw line and led 65-59 going into the fourth quarter.
Marietta took control in the fourth as they began with a 9-0 run, fueled by six points and three offensive rebounds from Kroft, pushing the lead to 15. The Blue Streaks tried to cut into the lead, but Marietta kept up the pressure as Levering hits a trio of jumpers. Levering's three-pointer at the 2:06 mark put the lead at 83-67 and John Carroll could not get any closer. All of the Marietta seniors received a "curtain call" as the Pioneers closed out and cruised to victory, 87-69.
Levering led Marietta with 15 points and collected six rebounds. Gribble added eight points and Hill finished with nine points. Kroft led the way with seven rebounds.
Ryncarz led all scorers with 22 points. Pietrowski scored 21 points and led the Blue Streaks with eight rebounds.
The Pioneers will take to the road for their final two regular season contests. They will travel to Mount Union on Wednesday (Feb. 14) for a 7 p.m. tipoff and will close out the season with the OAC-leading Baldwin Wallace on Saturday (Feb. 17) with a 4 p.m. start time.
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.
