MARIETTA, Ohio — For most of the first half, Marietta looked like the No. 2 team in the nation. The Pioneers jumped out to a 16-0 lead and everyone in Ban Johnson Arena was preparing for a rout.

No one told Medaille.

Marietta (26-2) did hold on for a 91-79 victory in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament at Ban Johnson Arena Friday night. But after the 16-0 run to start the game, the Mavericks (15-13) outscored the Pioneers 79-75. Marietta faces Rochester (18-8) at 7:15 p.m., Saturday. The winner advances to the Sweet 16.

"I think everybody in our locker room was frustrated, because that first five, six minutes of the game our team did everything the coaching staff asked them to do," said Marietta coach Jon VanderWal. "They executed the game plan to perfection. It was a clinic. The problem is when you start a game off so good it's hard not to relax, and as soon as you relax the tide changes. Now it's hard to get back to where you started."

VanderWal also credited Medaille for not giving up.

"Those guys are a bunch of fighters," he said. "They fought their tails off. We jumped on them big time. They wanted nothing to do with that. They never let us get it out of hand."

Medaille coach Keith Hack said they tried to prepare for Marietta's best shot at the beginning of the game, but it was simply too much to overcome.

"We talked a lot about that first five or six minutes of the game knowing that they were going to throw a haymaker at us," he said. "Obviously, we didn't want it to be 16-0. But I think we showed what kind of team that we are by battling back. We made some runs and got it to 10 points in the second half and then Kendall (McGill) got his fourth foul. It seemed like whenever Kendall came out, they went on a run."

McGill scored 17 points, including two three pointers for the Mavericks. He was proud of how Medaille kept battling.

"All we were thinking about was staying together. We wanted to stay to our principles and stay with everything that we work on at practice," McGill said. "I feel like we have a group of guys that are going to fight back no matter what and I really admire that about them."

In the end, though, Marietta's size proved too much for Medaille as the Pioneers scored 42 points in the paint and recorded 14 more rebounds.

"Obviously that was a big mismatch. Tim (Kreeger) had a big game," VanderWal said. "We've got a bunch of veteran guys who can make plays and they have a lot of confidence. We made the right plays when we needed to and hit big shots when we needed to and extend it back to 16 or 17."

Kreeger scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Brennen Crawford added nine points and Addy Black had six points and nine rebounds.

Jason Ellis, the Ohio Athletic Conference's top player this season, led all scorers with 25 points.

"Jason doesn't lack any confidence and we don't lack any confidence in him," VanderWal said. "He's one of the best players in the country and we're going to let him rip."

Hack was impressed with Ellis and the other Pioneer sharpshooters.

"They're a good team," he said. "We knew they had some good shooters and they definitely made some shots in the second half."

Both Ellis and Kreeger were disappointed with how the Pioneers played defensively, especially in the second half when Medaille scored 50 points.

"Defensively, we let them keep scoring," Ellis said. "We let them do what they do and didn't take them out of what they wanted to do. We got lazy on defense in the second half."

Kreeger added, "I got complacent for sure and made some dumb plays. Other guys weren't doing the things coach wanted us to do. I think complacency got us today when we got up on them."

Medaille had four players score in double figures, led by Rodney Graves' 18 points. He also had seven rebounds.

"We've been in a lot of close games this year," Graves said. "When we're in a close game we think we can come back. We don't ever give up."

Bryce Smith added 15 points and Jaqwan Washington had 12 points in the loss.

Marietta's Lukas Isaly, a first team All-OAC selection, had another strong showing with 15 points, four rebounds and three assists.