MARIETTA, Ohio — Marietta College finished the regular season with an 83-65 win over Baldwin Wallace University Saturday (Feb. 17) afternoon in Ban Johnson Arena. The Pioneers improve to 16-9 overall and 10-8 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Baldwin Wallace finishes its season with a 6-19 record, 3-15 in the OAC.
Marietta honored its five seniors before the game and then started the quintet.
Jac Alexander (Oak Harbor, Ohio/Oak Harbor),
Torin Lochow (Huntington, W.Va./Huntington),
Cooper Parrott (Willard, Ohio/Willard),
David Sanford (Springfield, Ohio/Springfield), and
Sahmi Willoughby (Groveport, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) all played their final game in Ban Johnson Arena.
"We didn't play well in the first half, but we came out of the gates in the second half and just really played Marietta basketball," Marietta head coach
Jon VanderWal said "I felt pretty good with our energy and demeanor in the second half."
The day belonged to Willoughby as he just missed posting a double-double in each half of the game. The Pioneers post player had 13 points and 14 rebounds in the first half and then notched nine points and 10 boards in the second. His 24 rebounds broke the Marietta College single game record of 23 rebounds held by Adam Rockhold and Ed Boyce.
"Sahmi is the best rebounder I've ever coached and I wondered what the school record was so I looked it up after shoot around this morning," VanderWal said. "During pregame I asked Sahmi if he knew what 23 stands for and he had no idea. I said that's the school record for rebounds; why don't you go break it today?"
Baldwin Wallace scored the first five points of the game on a jumper from Luke Driscoll and a three-pointer from Myles Reynolds. The Yellow Jackets led 10-5 two minutes into the game. The Pioneers answered with an 11-0 run. Willoughby scored five points, Sanford hit a three-pointer and
Danny Flood (Valley City, Ohio/Buckeye) scored three points in the Marietta run.
The Pioneers led by as many as 10 points in the first half. Baldwin Wallace scored the final five points of the period and trailed Marietta by five points, 34-29, at halftime.
Three-pointers from
De'Ovion Price (River Rouge, Mich./River Rouge) and Alexander and a monster dunk from Willoughby in the opening minutes of the second half put the Pioneers in complete control. BW got within six points only to see Marietta score nine straight points to end any hopes of a Yellow Jacket comeback.
In addition to Willoughby's 22 points and 24 rebounds, Ethan Anderson scored 14 points and Sanford chipped in with 13 points and five rebounds. Price added 12 points.
Jarred Logan led the Yellow Jackets with 15 points to go along with eight rebounds. Reynolds finished with 13 points, while Driscoll had eight points and 11 rebounds.
Marietta is the No. 5 seed in next week's OAC Tournament. The Pioneers play at No. 4 seed Otterbein University in the quarterfinals on Tuesday (Feb. 20). Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. in Westerville.
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.
