As well as the Marietta College men's basketball team shot Friday night, it was the polar opposite Saturday as the Pioneers fell 76-55 to No. 22 Ohio Wesleyan University in the 42nd annual Shrine Tournament championship at Ban Johnson Arena.
Marietta shot just 36.5 percent from the floor including 2-for-19 from 3-point range. Its 55 points were just over half of the 109 it scored the previous night. Wesleyan on the other hand shot 45.6 percent from the floor and 50 percent from beyond the arch.
"I thought they out-competed us," said Marietta head coach Jon VanderWal. "They obviously shot the ball really well to start the game, which got us in a funk. We shot about as bad as we could should it. They shot it really well. They beat us on the boards as well. We just weren't tough enough today. We didn't execute well enough. Wesleyan played really well, and that resulted in us getting our butts kicked."
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JORDAN HOLLAND The Marietta Times
Marietta College’s Tyler Worstell, right, goes up for a shot against Ohio Wesleyan in a men’s basketball game at Ban Johnson Arena Saturday night.
Wesleyan opened the game on an 18-9 run before Marietta cut it to 20-14 led by five points from sophomore Garrett Stephenson. Stephenson led Marietta with 14 points on the night.
Wesleyan then scored seven unanswered points before a Brennan McKean 3-ball to make it 27-17. In the final two minutes of the half, Wesleyan hit three 3-pointers, including back-to-back treys from Taylor Rieger, to go into halftime up 40-23.
Five minutes into the second half, the Pios cut the deficit from 17 to 11. Six points from senior Jason Humphrey and four from junior Tyler Hammond helped get Marietta back in it. Just as it looked like momentum was shifting back to the Pioneers, Greg White nailed a 3-pointer for Wesleyan to make the lead 51-37.
Later, with the score 58-41, Dre White connected on a layup and a 3-pointer to put Wesleyan up 22 points with 7:27 remaining.
The Pioneers cut it to a 20 point game with a layup by senior Jacob Owens with 3:03 remaining but would get no closer.
White and Reuel Rogers led Wesleyan, now 2-0, with 14 points each. Rieger contributed 13 points while Andy Winters, who was named Cliff Rose Most Valuable Player of the tournament, put up a 10 spot.
The Pioneers fell to 1-1, and will look to rebound against Wayne College Tuesday in another home tilt.
"Right now I think this team is kind of a high and low team," VanderWal said. "When things are going well, we click on all cylinders. When we face a little adversity, we just don't seem to handle it very well right now. It kind of snowballs on us. We've got to figure out a way to, even when we're not making shots around the perimeter, to make some plays."
