MARIETTA, Ohio — The No. 24 ranked Marietta College women's basketball team held visiting Wilmington College without a field goal for over 13 minutes as the Pioneers defeated the Quakers 68-46 Saturday (Jan. 8) afternoon.
Marietta, winners of its last six games, improves to 12-1 overall and 5-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Wilmington falls to 6-7 on the season and 2-4 in the OAC.
"I thought our team did a really good job shutting down their driving lanes today and our transition defense was phenomenal," Marietta head coach Kole Vivian said. "Offensively, we thought we had a little more experience inside, and we did a great job getting (Erin) Hahn the ball. She gets a lot of the headlines with her 19 points, and she deserves them, but her teammates found her inside all day."
Hahn recorded her second double-double of the season finishing with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Olivia Gribble added 13 points, while Hannah Schill chipped in with eight points. Kelly Levering grabbed six rebounds to go along with four points.
Wilmington hit a quartet of three-pointers to start the game and built an eight-point lead, 14-6, with 2:33 left in the first quarter. Marietta scored the final eight points of the period, including a jumper from Makenzie Wilson as time ran out, to tie the game at 14 heading into the second quarter.
The Pioneers went on an 11-0 run spurred by a trio of three-pointers to lead 27-16 with six minutes remaining in the quarter. Gribble got the run started with a triple and Schill added a pair of three-pointers in the run.
While the Marietta offense started to click, the Pioneer defense was busy locking down the Quakers. Wilmington scored just four points in the second quarter as Marietta held the Quakers without a field goal for the entire period. The Pioneers led 30-18 at halftime.
MC gradually extended its lead in the third quarter. A pair of free throws from Levering at the 3:36 mark pushed the margin to 19 points, 45-26. The Pioneers would lead by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter.
Wilmington's Kennedy Lewis led all scorers with 20 points. She hit four three-pointers and grabbed four rebounds. Mackenzie Campbell finished with seven points and Zahrya Bailey pulled down eight rebounds.
Marietta travels to Alliance on Wednesday (Jan. 12) for a 7 p.m. game at the University of Mount Union.