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ALLIANCE -- The Top-10 battle between Marietta College and the University of Mount Union never materialized as No. 2 Marietta routed the No. 10 Purple Raiders by the score of 84-64 Wednesday evening in Ohio Athletic Conference men's basketball action.
Tonight's win, coupled with Heidelberg's loss at Capital, has assured Marietta at least a piece of the OAC regular season title. One win in the last three games will give the outright championship to the Pioneers. Marietta has now won 17 straight games and is 19-2 overall and 14-0 in the OAC.
"The first half was one the best performances I've ever seen. Our guys played great defense and made Mount work for absolutely everything while keeping them off the glass," Marietta head coach Jon VanderWal said. "On the other end, our offensive rebounding gave us a ton of momentum. Our guards are always solid and tonight our post players really stepped up on both ends. Sahmi (Willoughby) was an absolute monster today."
Willoughby recorded his third straight double-double with a game-high 25 points, a new career high, and 15 rebounds. He was 10-for-14 from the floor and a perfect 4-for-4 at the free throw line.
Led by Willoughby's effort on the glass, Marietta had a commanding 47-29 advantage on the boards resulting in a 32 second chance points for the Pioneers to just 12 for Mount Union (18-3 overall, 11-3 OAC).
Mason Lydic hit the first basket of the night as Marietta jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. The Pioneers never trailed in the game and pushed the margin to double-digits, 20-8, on a three-pointer from Willoughby at the 10:49 mark of the first half.
Mount Union suffered a seven-minute scoring drought in the first half and watched any hopes of an upset slip away. By the time the Purple Raiders ended the dry spell, Marietta had a 21-point lead, 31-10.
The Pioneers led by as many as 27 points in the first half and took a 25-point lead, 43-18, into halftime.
Fifth year senior Tim Kreeger entered the game needing 12 points for his 1,000th career points at Marietta College. Kreeger scored four points in the first half and then scored the first six points of the second half. The Pioneer big man scored a layup at the 11:36 mark to reach the scoring milestone. Kreeger is the 37th Pioneer to score 1,000 points.
"Tim played phenomenal on both ends of the floor and eclipsed the 1,000-point mark," VanderWal said. "He's had a great career and it was the perfect game for him to reach that milestone."
Kreeger finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Jason Ellis chipped in with 14 points and six boards, while Mason Lydic added 12 points.
Christian Parker led the Purple Raiders with 16 points and eight rebounds. Michael Skeriotos finished with 13 points and Chris Painter added 10 points.
Marietta travels to Wilmington College on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip-off.
WOMEN
It was a celebratory evening at the Ban Johnson Fieldhouse Wednesday as the Marietta Pioneer women's basketball team honored its four senior ballplayers. Devin Hefner, Katie Liston, Jill Congrove, and Kelsie Warnock were all honored for their long careers as a tremendous presentation played from the jumbotron. After those festivities ended, the Pioneers closed out the home portion of their regular season with a decisive Ohio Athletic Conference victory over Mount Union, 58-33.
The Pioneers improved to 18-4 on the season and 11-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The Purple Raiders fell to 7-12 overall and 4-9 in conference games.
"That was a special win", said Marietta head coach Kole Vivian. "You never know what you're going to get on Senior night because there's so much emotion going on, but the stuff they did tonight really set the tone. Everybody brought something good tonight".
Marietta started the game on a 10-0 run as Mount Union didn't score for the first 7 minutes. Congrove paced the PIos with 6 points in the first quarter. Olivia Gribble canned a three pointer at the 4:38 mark of the 2nd quarter to extend the Marietta lead to 18 points. Mount Union was only able to shoot 13% from the field in the first half and the Pioneers took a 32-15 lead into halftime
Gribble, who finished with a game high 15 points, started the 3rd quarter with two consecutive treys and the Pioneers started to distance themselves from the pack. Erin Hahn's layup to begin the 4th quarter gave her a double-double on the evening, finishing with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Marietta will hit the road for the first of three road games to close out the regular season. The Pioneers will travel to Wilmington this Saturday for a 2 p.m. clash.
"When we defend like we did tonight," said coach Vivian, "we are going to be a tough team to beat."