MARIETTA Ohio — In the first 85 seasons of Ohio Athletic Conference men's basketball, Marietta College won four regular season championships. With Saturday's (Feb. 16) 83-66 win over Heidelberg University, the Pioneers won a share of their fifth straight regular season crown and sixth since Jon VanderWal took over as head coach in 2007-08.
"I kept telling our guys all year long that it's an 18-game schedule," Marietta head coach Jon VanderWal said. "For the last five years to be able to say that nobody in this conference has done a better job in any of those years than what we have is a pretty remarkable accomplishment. It's something we are really proud of."
Marietta, ranked No. 19 nationally, finishes the regular season with a 20-5 overall record and 14-4 in the OAC. This marks the fifth straight 20-win season for the Pioneers; a program first. Heidelberg falls to 8-17 on the season and 6-12 in the OAC.
Capital, Mount Union and Marietta all share the regular season title with identical 14-4 conference records. After the OAC tiebreaking procedures were applied, Capital earned the #1 seed in next week's OAC Tournament. Mount Union is the #2 seed, followed by Marietta, Wilmington, Baldwin Wallace, John Carroll, Heidelberg and Muskingum.
The Pioneers open tournament play at home against John Carroll on Tuesday (Feb. 19). Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. following the Marietta College women's game against Mount Union at 6 p.m.
The Pioneers and Student Princes traded small leads through the first eight minutes. A three-point play from Mel Shuler with 11:45 left in the first half put Marietta in front, 13-12. The Navy Blue and White never relinquished the lead again. Marietta led 41-33 at halftime.
Marietta scored the first eight points of the second half pushing the margin into double digits where it stayed for the duration of the game. Heidelberg answered with four straight points to get within 10, 48-38, only to see the Pioneers score the next 10 points.
Jason Ellis capped the MC run with a three-pointer to make it 58-38 seven minutes into the half. Ellis drained five triples in the game and led all scorers with 21 points.
With the outcome of the game in hand, Pioneer fans turned their attention to Marietta senior Keith Richardson and the pursuit of his 1,000th career point. Richardson entered the game needing five points to reach the milestone. With 6:55 left in the game, Richardson hit a jumper from the right elbow to become the 35th member of the Pioneer 1,000-Point Club.
"It's been an unconventional journey for Keith. But to his credit, he's stuck with it and I'm just super happy for him," VanderWal said. "To win a championship, experience senior day and score his 1,000th point is a pretty awesome day for him."
In addition to Ellis, Anthony Wallace finished with 16 points. Tim Kreeger added 11 points and six rebounds.
Dylan Woods paced Heidelberg with 13 points. Josh Dixon and Myron Prewitt added 12 and 11 points, respectively. Prewitt grabbed a game-high nine boards.
For the game, Marietta shot 45.3% (29-of-64) from the floor, 44.0% (11-of-25) from three-point range and 66.7% (14-of-21) at the line. The Student Princes were 21-of-60 (35.0%), 4-of-24 (16.7%) behind the arc and 20-of-26 (76.9%) at the line.
The Pioneers edged Heidelberg on the glass, 41-39. The Student Princes turned the ball over 13 times, while Marietta committed 10 turnovers.