MARIETTA, Ohio — Marietta College men's basketball bounced back from its first two losses of the season to post a 101-90 victory over visiting John Carroll University Saturday (Jan. 15) afternoon in front of another packed house inside Ban Johnson Arena. [Box Score]

Fourth-year Head Coach Jon VanderWal's Pioneers improved to 14-2 overall and stayed tied atop the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) standings with Capital University at 7-2. John Carroll, who had won 18 straight in the series, fell to 10-5 overall and 5-3 in the OAC.

Junior Trevor Halter (Malvern/Malvern) paced all scorers with a career-high 29 points. Halter, who hit five three-pointers and added six boards, is now just eight points shy of 1,000 for his career. The wing led a Pioneers attack that featured 56.9% (33-of-58) shooting from the field, 60.9% (14-of-23) from three and 72.4% (21-of-29) from the charity stripe.

Freshman guard Tyler Hammond (Cleveland/St. Ignatius) was the next high scorer with 20 points. Sophomore wing Brian Crader (Thornville/Sheridan) provided a huge spark off the bench for VanderWal's group by scoring a season-high 13 points, all in the second half. Last year, Crader scored a career-best 17 against John Carroll. Fellow sophomore guard  Jacob Owens (Mansfield/Mansfield) chipped in with 12 points, all from behind the arc. In addition, sophomore Jason Humphrey (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier) had seven points and eight rebounds, while sophomore J.J. Martin (Huntington, W.Va./Huntington) added nine points and six boards.

Joey Meyer led the Blue Streaks with 18 points. Maurice Haynes scored 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds, while Connor Tilow added 14 points and seven boards. Corey Shontz also contributed 12 points and eight rebounds in the loss. The Blue Streaks finished the game 46.7% (35-of-75) from the field, 36.7% (11-of-30) from three and 60% (9-of-15) from the free throw line.

Marietta came out of the gates on fire, mainly behind the play of Owens, who hit 4-of-4 from long range to propel the Pioneers to a 24-11 lead just 6:30 into the action. John Carroll slowly chipped away at the Pioneer lead through the rest of the first stanza, cutting the lead to one, 48-47, with 1:25 left before intermission. The Pioneers, however, responded by scoring the final six points of the half and went to the locker room leading 54-47.

John Carroll started the second half on a 17-8 run over the first 5:36 of the half to grab its first lead of the game at 64-62 with 14:34 to play.  With 11:51 left in regulation, the Blue Streaks led 69-68. Crader then took control of the game, scoring Marietta's next 10 points. The flurry concluded with a steal and a layup to put the Pioneers up 78-73 with 9:46 to go in regulation. Marietta built its lead back up to as many as 13 points in final minutes and went on to win 101-90.

The Pioneers begin the second round of OAC action Saturday (Jan. 22) afternoon when they visit Baldwin-Wallace College for a tip-off at 4 p.m. Marietta won the season's initial meeting 83-61 inside Ban Johnson Arena on Dec. 4.