WOOSTER, Ohio — No. 6 ranked Marietta College scored 61 second half points to erase a 15-point halftime deficit and beat York College (Pa.) by the score of 92-86 Sunday (Dec. 29) afternoon at the 2019 Great Lakes Invitational. The Pioneers improve to 9-1 overall, while the Spartans fall to 9-3 on the season.

"I told our kids in the locker room that we clearly have some things we need to work on, but the two second halves our guys played this weekend we showed a ton of resiliency and a lot of toughness," Marietta head coach Jon VanderWal said. "I'm really proud of them for that. I'm a little concerned about how poorly we played for stretches this weekend but couldn't be prouder of the effort and toughness our guys showed down the stretch."

Junior Jason Ellis scored 26 of his game-high 36 points in the second to lead the Pioneer comeback. Ellis hit six three-pointers and was 10-of-11 at the free throw line. He also was one of two Pioneers with seven rebounds in the game.

Junior post player Tim Kreeger finished with 14 points and six boards, while Mason Lydic chipped in with 10 points and six rebounds. Caleb Hoyng helped Marietta dominate the glass with seven rebounds to go along with seven points. The Pioneers won the battle of the boards with 45 rebounds to York's 26.

York had four players in double figures led by Jared Wagner's 35 points. Darin Gordon had 18 points and six rebounds, while Joey Polczynski and David Giuliani had 14 and 13 points, respectively. Giuliani led the Spartans with seven rebounds.

The teams traded small leads through the first 10 minutes of the game. York went on a 13-2 run to build a 15-point lead with 3:55 left in the opening period. The Spartans pushed the margin to as many as 17 points and led 46-31 at the break.

Gordon hit the first bucket of the second half to again give the Spartans a 17-point lead, 48-31. Marietta answered with an 11-0 spurt cutting the margin to six, 48-42, four minutes into the half.

York clung to its lead until Ellis hit a jumper at the 10:20 mark tying the game, 59-59. Jake Montgomery gave Marietta its first lead, 61-60, since early in the game with a jumper in the paint at the 8:35 mark. The Pioneers would not trail the rest of the afternoon.

The Pioneers pushed their advantage to nine points, 77-68, on a jumper from Lydic with 1:24 left on the clock. York was forced to foul and Marietta converted 15-of-16 free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.

Marietta jumps back into Ohio Athletic Conference play this Saturday (Jan. 4) at Wilmington College. Tip-off is set for 3:00 p.m.