MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's basketball team was just too much for visiting Methodist University to handle as the No. 11 ranked Pioneers downed the Monarchs 79-64 Friday (Nov. 20) evening in the first round of the 45th annual Shrine Tournament. The yearly event is sponsored by the Marietta Shrine Club, BSN Sports and Best Western Marietta.

It was raining three's inside Ban Johnson Arena. Seven different Pioneers nailed a three-pointer and Marietta finished with 12 in the game.  Brennan McKean set the tone early draining a trey to open the scoring.

Following a short-lived 4-3 Methodist lead, the Pioneers scored the next six points and never trailed again. A dunk from Jack Thome pushed the Marietta lead to 20 points, 37-17, with 2:44 left in the first half. The Pioneers led 37-19 at halftime.

The second half was much of the same. A.J. Ireland layed one in with 6:34 left in the game to give Marietta its biggest lead of the night, 70-41. Head coach Jon VanderWal cleared his bench soon after.

A.J. Edwards led all scorers with 16 points. He also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds and blocked five Monarch shots. Luis Garcia hit a trip of three-pointers and finished with 14 points. McKean added eight points, while Dillon Young chipped in with seven points and five assists.

Tabias Hilliard led Methodist with 14 points. Davion Ayabarreno notched 10 markers and Brandon Monk finished with seven points and six rebounds.

Marietta shot 40.3% (31-of-77) from the floor, 44.4% (12-of-27) behind the arc and 38.5% (5-of-13) at the line. Methodist was 24-of-62 (38.7%) from the floor, 2-of-17 (11.8%) from three-point range and 14-of-16 (87.5%) at the line.

The Monarchs edged Marietta on the boards, 45-42. Marietta forced 15 Methodist turnovers and committed a paltry five of their own.

In the other first round game, No. 6 ranked Catholic University defeated La Roche College 84-65.

La Roche and Methodist will face off in the consolation game Saturday at 5:00 p.m. And then it will be a battle of nationally ranked teams in the championship game at 7:00 p.m. Marietta (3-0 overall) and Catholic (2-0) will meet for the Shrine Championship trophy.