MARIETTA, Ohio – Marietta College earned their way into the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship with a dominating 91-43 defeat of Capital University Thursday (Feb. 22) evening in the semifinal round. The Pioneers improve to 21-5 on the season, while the Comets fall to 19-8 and will hope to receive an at-large bid to continue on with their season. The win was also the Pioneers 12th consecutive victory, which ties a program record.
No. 2 seeded Marietta will host fourth-seeded Ohio Northern University, a 57-43 winner over top-seeded Baldwin Wallace in the semifinals, on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. for the tournament championship. This will be the first time in program history that the Pioneers will host the OAC Championship game.
During the game,
Olivia Gribble (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) scored the 1,000th point in her illustrious Pioneer career and got a thunderous ovation from the crowd.
"First off, big thanks to our crowd, they were unreal tonight," Marietta head coach
Kole Vivian said. "Our campus and community really showed out for us tonight and it wouldn't have gone like that if we didn't have them. Our team was so locked in during that first half. We were all over the glass and making life tough for them. And I am happy with how we finished."
Marietta got off to a very fast start, jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the first four minutes.
Kelly Levering (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) started the run with a layup and
Hannah Schill (Rootstown, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) converted a pair of buckets.
Ally Grake (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) nailed a jumper and Gribble notched her first score of the game to give the Pioneers an early advantage.
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking) then entered the game and made her mark quickly, hitting a pair of threes on the way to 12 first quarter points. The Comets countered by shooting 2-of-12 from the field and turned the ball over four times in a rough first stanza. The Pioneers took a 27-7 lead heading into the second quarter.
After Capital's Laney Murphy opened the second period with a three-pointer, Marietta answered with a 7-0 run, fueled by three-pointers from Grake and
Adi Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta). Later in the quarter,
Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) scored a layup to push the lead to 26 at the 5:01 mark. Tolson scored the final five points of the half and the Pioneers led 49-19 going into the intermission.
The Pioneers extended the lead in rapid fashion as they began the third period with a trio of three-pointers, two from Gribble, pushing the score to 58-19. Gribble scored the final five points to close out the period and the Pioneers would take a commanding 73-30 advatnge in the final period.
With the large lead, Marietta was able to get some minutes for some of the first year players. Before Gribble was given her curtain call, though, her jumper in the opening minute gave her the 1,000-point milestone. The Pioneers would cruise to a 91-43 victory.
Tolson led the Pioneers with 22 points off the bench and Gribble finished with 18 points. Schill scored eight points and also led the Pioneers with eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
O'Connor led the Comets with 12 points and Perkins provided eight points in a losing effort.
"Saturday against ONU is going to be an absolute battle," concluded Coach Vivian. "They are the toughest team to play in a tournament because of their staff, personnel and experience."
Fans can follow all of 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.
