MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's basketball team fell behind early but fought back on two different occasions in the second half to get the score to within one possession, only to trail off at the end and drop a conference matchup to Ohio Northern University, 71-63, at the Ban Johnson Arena Sunday (Jan. 12) afternoon. The loss drops Marietta to an 8-4 record overall and 3-3 in the OAC. Ohio Northern improves to 8-4 on the season and 4-2 in conference games.
"Loved the fight I saw out of our girls today," said Marietta head coach
Jenna Andersen. "We couldn't get it done on the boards and that's what hurt us. Excited to get back to it tomorrow and bounce back!"
Marietta fell behind quickly 6-2 as the Polar Bears got a trio of layups, two from Brooke Allen. Later in the period, after the Pioneers cut the lead to two, ONU got a three-pointer from Jada Benjamin to extend the lead.
Ally Grake's (Morrow, Ohio/Little Miami) three-pointer at the 2:43 mark keep the differential at six points and
Abby Garner's (Macedonia, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) jumper in the final seconds cut the lead to four. Ohio Northern finished the period with a pair of free throws and led the Pioneers 19-13 going into the second quarter.
The Polar Bears began to get hot from the perimeter in the second period as they hit from three-point range four times in the first three minutes, pushing the advantage to 12 points.
Sophie Nelson (Parkersburg, W.Va./Ritchie County) tried to rally the Pioneers with a three pointer, which cut the lead to 10. Marietta then chipped away at the lead for the remainder of the half as they went 5-of-6 from the free throw line. The Pioneers trailed 35-28 going into intermission.
Both teams traded buckets to begin the third quarter, but the Polar Bears still maintained a nine-point lead after yet another layup from Allen. Marietta showed some spark finally and went on a 7-0 run, fueled by five points from Nelson, and cut the margin to just two points. ONU's Courtney Sumner came off the bench and fired in a clutch three pointer to stop the run and extended the lead to five. ONU then pushed the lead further as they began to win the battle of the boards, getting a trio of offensive rebounds that led to a pair of layups from Allen. Grake brought the Pioneers back with a pair of clutch jumpers in the closing seconds and Marietta entered the fourth period down 49-45.
Marietta scored first in the fourth period off of a tipin from Payton Bruns, but Sumner answered with a three pointer and then did it again on ONU's next possession. Marietta could not find a way to get back into the game and the Polar Bears closed out a 71–63 victory.
Grake led the way for Marietta with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Paige Tolson (Guysville, Ohio/Federal Hocking) shot 7-of-8 from the free throw line on the way to 11 points. Nelson came off the bench to hit a pair of treys, ending with 10 points.
Allen led all scorers with 22 points and finished with a game high 12 rebounds. Mackenzie Suprano and Kristen Luersman finished with 12 points apiece. Abi Akamine dished out 10 assists.
Marietta has to quickly get ready to play again as they welcome in Case Western Reserve University on Monday (Jan. 13) for a 5 p.m. tip-off. The game was to be played in early December but had to be rescheduled to the Spartans travel issues.
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.
