TIFFIN, Ohio — The No. 22 ranked Marietta College women's basketball team outscored Heidelberg University 52-13 in the first and fourth quarters as the Pioneers easily defeated the Student Princes, 83-52, Saturday (Jan. 13) afternoon.

Marietta improves to 14-1 on the season and 7-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Heidelberg falls to 4-11 overall and 2-6 in league play.

"We were able to start the game exactly how we wanted to, with great rebounding and pressure on defense. Heidelberg is a much less experienced team than us, and we were able to use that to our advantage in the first quarter," Marietta head coach Kole Vivian said. "In the fourth period we were able to lock down and get stops. Our defense really fueled our offense in that final period and our starting guards were tremendous with making plays all afternoon."

In addition to great defense, Marietta dominated the paint outscoring the Student Princes 50-10 inside. The Pioneers also scored 34 points off of Heidelberg turnovers.

Amisha Herd led three Pioneers in double figures with 15 points. The senior point guard also grabbed six rebounds and had three steals. Shay Lett and Brooke Borich added 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Corried Burkhardt finished with a team-best seven rebounds and six steals to go along with seven points. Jo Herd-Middlebrooks and Alexis Enoch each chipped in with eight points.

After giving up the first basket of the game, the Pioneer defense held Heidelberg scoreless for the next six and half minutes. Marietta ran off 21 straight points and held a commanding 21-2 lead with 3:26 left in the first quarter.

Heidelberg chipped away at the deficit and got within eight, 37-29, in the final minute of the half. Marietta took a 39-29 lead into halftime.

The Student Princes continued to battle in the third quarter and cut the Pioneer lead to seven points, 54-47, heading into the fourth quarter.

Madelyn Crawford hit a pair of free throws for Heidelberg with 8:56 left in the game to again cut the Marietta lead to seven points, 56-49. But the Pioneer defense turned things up a notch and held the Student Princes scoreless for the next seven minutes.

By the time Heidelberg managed to score another point Marietta had extended its lead to 28 points, 77-49. The Pioneers pushed the margin as high as 31 points.

Crawford led Heidelberg with 16 points and 10 boards. Brittanie Ulmer added 12 points for the Student Princes.

For the game, Marietta shot 47.6% (30-of-63) from the floor, 14.3% (2-of-14) from three-point range and 67.7% (21-of-31) at the free throw line. The Student Princes were 16-of-52 (30.8%) from the floor, 7-of-21 (33.3%) behind the arc and 13-of-22 (59.1%) at the charity stripe.

The Pioneers outrebounded Heidelberg 47-32. Marietta turned the ball over 19 times, while the Student Princes committed 29 turnovers.

Marietta is back in action on Wednesday (Jan. 17) when the Pioneers travel to Capital University for a 7:30 p.m. tip off.