ALLIANCE, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team took off to a quick lead and cruised to an important road victory, defeating Mount Union, 81-56, Wednesday (Feb. 14) night in Ohio Athletic Conference women's basketball action. Marietta improves to 19-5 on the season and 14-3 in the OAC. The Purple Raiders fall to 9-15 overall and 6-11 in conference games.
With the victory, the Pioneers clinched the No. 2 seed in the OAC playoffs, insuring Marietta will receive a first-round bye and will host an OAC tournament semi-final next week. The Pioneers still have one final test as they will battle conference-leading Baldwin Wallace this weekend.
"We did a great job of grinding out a road win," said Marietta head coach
Kole Vivian. "We didn't really have one big run tonight, but it was a series of smaller runs that allowed us to get the victory. We are excited to be playing with a lot of momentum heading into a big game Saturday at Baldwin Wallace."
Both teams battled out to a 4-all tie in the first three minutes of the quarter. Marietta finally found some rhythm and went on a 9-2 run, getting a pair of buckets from
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking) and a three-pointer
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) and extending the lead to 13–6. As Mount Union continued to struggle from the field, Marietta expanded the lead further to 20-6 after
Makenzie Wilson's (Wapakoneta, Ohio/Wapakoneta) layup at the 2:36 mark. The Purple Raiders fought back in to the game after hitting a trio of jumpers, two from the perimeter, for an 8–0 run. Tolson closed the quarter with a pair of free throws and the Pioneers led 24–14 heading into the second stanza.
The Pioneers got off to a hot start shooting the basketball in the second quarter.
Adi Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) and
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) each hit from three-point range and
Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) followed with a jumper to push the lead to 15. Mount Union answered with six points, three from Elizabeth Mason, to get the lead back to single digits. Marietta later took control with a big basket from the paint by
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) and Gribble's three-pointer at the 2:36 mark put the score at 41–26. Mount Union kept up with the pace as best as they could by getting a trio of baskets from Mason, but Tolson's jumper in the closing seconds made the score 45–33 going into intermission.
Levering began the third quarter with a three pointer for the Pioneers, but after a Makayla Dunkel jumper and a pair of free throws from Mason, Mount Union found themselves only down by 10. The Marietta lead began to expand once again midway through the quarter after the Pioneers got a pair of jumpers from Wilson, putting the lead at 17. Tolson closed out the period with two consecutive jump shots and the Pioneers led 66–47 going into the final quarter.
Marietta put away the game early on the fourth as they got two buckets from Gribble, leading to a back-breaking 7-0 run. There was too much of a deficit for the Purple Raiders to come back from and Marietta would go on to collect the 81-57 conference victory.
Tolson finished with a game-high 22 points and collected five rebounds. Gribble scored 14 points and Levering tallied 12 points.
Hannah Schill (Rootstown, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) led the Pioneers with nine rebounds and dished out four assists.
Mason led Mount Union with 11 points and Ali Hudik finished with eight points.
Marietta closes out the regular season on the road as they travel to Baldwin Wallace this Saturday (Feb. 17). Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.
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 Twitter and Instagram.
