MARIETTA, Ohio – No. 2 ranked Marietta College earned their way into the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship with a defeat of Baldwin Wallace University Thursday (Feb. 24) evening in the semifinal round. The Pioneers improve to 24-2 on the season, while the Yellow Jackets finish with a 5-10 record.

The win was Marietta's 22nd straight setting a new school record for consecutive wins in a single season. The old mark of 21 was set by the 2014-15 team.

Top-seeded Marietta will host the second-seeded University of Mount Union, a 67-65 winner over Heidelberg in the semifinals, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. for the tournament championship.

"I'm just glad we got the win. We did not play our best today and we're going to have to play a lot better on Saturday," Marietta head coach Jon VanderWal said. "Give Baldwin Wallace they were a little shorthanded and they were in foul trouble but they really battled us and we able to hang on."

Tim Kreeger scored the first three buckets for Marietta, all from the paint.  A Sahmi Willougby layup at the 15 minute mark put the Pioneers up seven.  BW's Anthony Mazzeo kept the action close as he buried a pair of threes.

The Yellow Jackets were able to tie the game at the ten-minute mark when Rob Thomas was fouled after making a layup and completed the old fashioned three-point play.  Baldwin Wallace's 6'9" center, Christian Pfeiffer, nailed a three from the left wing to put the Yellow Jackets up with their biggest lead of four with 5:50 remaining.

Marietta then ripped off a seven-point run to regain the lead.  Jason Ellis and Willoughby scored from the paint and Mason Lydic hit from downtown to give Marietta back the lead with 3:37 remaining.  Marietta would take a 34-29 lead into halftime.

Both teams played stout defense in the first half and it showed in the respective shooting percentages.  Both teams closed the half shooting 35% from the field.

The Pioneers started to light it up from outside in the second half.  In the first seven minutes, Lukas Islay and Lydic combined for four triples to give the Pioneers their biggest lead of the game at 18.

The Yellow Jackets would try to keep it respectable.  BW's Jake Snyder hit three times from downtown, cuting the Marietta lead to nine.  Ellis iced it with a back-breaking trey with 1:41 remaining and the Yellow Jackets were not able to get any closer than seven.  The Pioneers won with a final score of 82-70.

Kreeger led all scorers with a monster game in the paint.  He shot 10-of-19 from the field and finished with 23 points and seven rebounds.  Lydic also provided 15 points off the bench.  He shot 4-of-6 from three-point range.  Islay went 8-of-12 from the free throw line and finished with 14 points.  Ellis led with 10 rebounds and provided 8 points to the cause.  Willoughby also added 9 points and 8 rebounds.

The Yellow Jackets had four players in double figures.  Watson finished with 14, Pfeiffer had 13 points, Snyder 12, and Mazzeo ended with 10 points.