WILMINGTON, Ohio — While the rest of the Ohio Athletic Conference schedule was postponed by weather, the #20 Marietta College men's basketball team continued its magical season with a 76-70 road win at Wilmington College Wednesday (Feb. 2) night inside hostile Fred Raizk Arena. [Box Score]

The first place Pioneers, who are ranked fourth in the first NCAA Regional Rankings, improved their record to 18-2 overall and 11-2 in the league. Their 18 wins is two shy of the school record set in 1953-54 and matched in 1954-55. In addition, the Pioneers are one victory away of their most ever in 84 seasons of OAC basketball as the 1935-36 OAC Champions finished 12-1. The Quakers fell to 8-12, 4-9 in the league standings.

Balanced scoring helped Marietta earn the hard-fought victory on a day when leading scorer Trevor Halter (Malvern/Malvern) was slowed by the flu. Junior Kevin Knab (Lakewood/Lakewood), who hit 4-of-7 from the floor and 8-of-8 from the free throw line, scored a team-best 16 points and pulled down a game-high tying eight boards. Knab is now just 43 points away from 1,000 in his career.

Freshman Tyler Hammond (Cleveland/St. Ignatius) made 5-of-7 shots from the field and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe to follow with 15 points while adding a game-high five assists. Sophomore Jacob Owens (Mansfield/Mansfield) added 14 points, while sophomore J.J. Martin (Huntington, W.Va./Huntington) contributed 13 points and eight rebounds.

Tyler White paced Wilmington with a game-high 22 points. Taylor Wellman also scored in double figures for the Quakers. He had 13, while Antonio Bowman and Malcom Heard II both added nine.

Wilmington out shot Marietta 49.0% (25-of-51) to 43.3% (26-of-60) overall. Both teams shot under 27% from long range. The Pioneers took advantage of their trips to the line, hitting 89.5% (17-of-19). The Quakers, meanwhile, struggled, hitting 62.5% (15-of-24). Marietta also out rebounded Wilmington 35-31 and had just 10 turnovers while they had 15.

The Quakers got off to a fast start and had their biggest lead of the game, 8-3, just 2:29 into the action. The Pioneers answered with a 6-0 run, keyed by a pair of Hammond layups, to take a 9-8 lead with 16:52 to play in the half. The score remained tight and was tied at 17-17 before Marietta went on a 6-0 to boost its advantage to 23-17 midway through the half. The Pioneers then led 30-23 with 5:43 remaining in the period and withstood a Quaker rally to take a 39-36 advantage into the half.

Wilmington regained its first lead since the opening minutes of the game when Nolan Darland connected on a pair of free throws to put his squad ahead 44-43 with 17:07 left on the clock. A layup by Knab, however, gave Marietta back the lead for good, 49-48, with 14:21 remaining.  The Pioneers never led by more than six points the rest of the way but hit all eight free throws in the final three minutes to hold on for the 76-70 road win.

On Saturday, Marietta plays host to Ohio Northern University for a men's and women's OAC doubleheader inside Ban Johnson Arena on Winter Weekend. A men's alumni game will take place at 10 a.m. The women then tip-off at 2 p.m. and the men follow at 4 p.m. The 28th Marietta Athletics Hall of Fame Class will be introduced during halftime of the men's game. In addition, it is Coaches vs. Cancer weekend and the campus community has a variety of events planned to help raise awareness as well as funds to fight the disease.