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Kelley Levering leads Marietta College women to season-opening win over Saint Vincent

By Kerry Patrick 4 min read

The force was with Marietta College senior Kelly Levering both on the video board and on the court in the Pioneers' season-opener Wednesday night at Ban Johnson Arena.

As part of the introduction for the starting lineup, Levering had a 'Star Wars' motif and carried a lightsaber in her video montage. The theme carried into the game, as the product of Olentangy Liberty High School scored a game-high 19 points in a 68-54 win over the Bobcats of Saint Vincent.

Levering, who averaged 3.4 points per game and made just 19 percent of her 48 3-point attempts while coming off the bench last season, showed her range after accounting for three 3-pointers and several additional outside shots which flirted with the 3-point arc.

She finished 7-of-11 from the floor with five rebounds.

"My range has always been around - I definitely want to expand on that with my role this year," Levering said. "With the great players we had last year, I definitely wouldn't say I had as much confidence. But this year, I am ready to go and unleash all that."

As for the Pioneers entire body of work, MC coach Kole Vivian couldn't ask for much more after defeating a program which qualified for the Division III postseason tournament last season. Vivian's assortment of guards limited Bobcats' leading returning scorer Emily Cavacini to two points on 1-of-14 shooting.

"Their point guard is unbelievable and we made life tough on her," Vivian said. "We had two to three people we felt good about putting on her, and make her earn her stuff.

Rebounding might need some cleaning up after the two teams tied in that department. Otherwise for a first game, MC brought out the intensity from the opening tip. Coach Vivian gave an assist to another Bobcat program as in Ohio University, who the Pioneers played in an exhibition game last week.

"Last year in our first game, we weren't very hungry as a team," Vivian said. "Tonight, I thought we were hungry. Ohio University helped us a lot. That was big for us."

Levering and the rest of the Pioneer crew can also thank Hannah Schill for staking MC to a 13-4 lead. Schill recorded the assist on Levering's 3-pointer to open the scoring and Levering's two-point bucket on the ensuing possession.

"If that first doesn't go in, I probably wouldn't have been as confident," Levering said. "That first one came off my hand and I can always tell when the ball comes off if I am going to have a good shooting night. That first one felt right, so I was ready to go."

Schill, who finished with nine points and a team-high six rebounds, also knocked down a 3-pointer then recorded a steal and converted the bucket at the other end which gave MC a 22-10 advantage just before the end of the first quarter.

MC's offense hit a wall for the first five-plus minutes of the second quarter and Saint Vincent whittled away at the deficit to close to within 24-18.

Levering then stepped to the forefront with three buckets in the final four minutes and change, including a 3-pointer to close the first half scoring and put the Pioneers in front 33-22.

"Kelly has always been a really good 3-point shooter," Vivian said. "When she was a freshman she was doing a lot of good stuff then fell into a role a little bit. Now we need her in a brand new role because of the people we graduated.

"She was awesome tonight. Took a lot of good shots, all rhythm shots."

Another outside threat for MC, Olivia Gribble, emerged with a pair of clutch 3-pointers which raised the margin to as many as 17 points (52-35) by the end of the third quarter.

The one individual keeping Saint Vincent relative was post player Madison Weber, who finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

The Bobcats also received offensive help from Emily Thompson, who finished with 13 points, and helped her club close to within nine points (41-32) late in the third quarter.

MC stayed firmly in control throughout and stuck the dagger when Paige Tolson and her 5-foot-3 frame weaved into the lane and converted the three-point play the hard way as part of her 11 points to increase the lead to 59-41 and less than six minutes remaining in regulation.

"In the second quarter there was about five minutes where we weren't very good on offense, but as the game went on we got better," Vivian said.

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com

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