Marietta’s Alex Kendall (21) handles the ball as Steubenville’s Josiah Rea (22) defends during Saturday’s game at Sutton Gym. Kendall led all scorers with 36 points as the Tigers cruised to a 78-53 victory. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

The Marietta boys basketball team put on a show offensively in Saturday’s 78-53 win over Steubenville at Sutton Gym.

The Tigers shot 56% from the floor, passed the ball extremely well and even threw down some dunks as they improved to 13-1 on the season.

“It felt like a feel-good game offensively,” said Marietta head coach Austin Gardner, whose team visits Fort Frye Tuesday. “Now, there’s some things that were not very good defensively. But, we made shots, shared the ball, and we don’t care who scores. If our team has that mentality the rest of the way, it makes for a lot of fun nights, and this was one of them.”

Alex Kendall could not be stopped, pouring in a game-high 36 points on a 15-of-18 shooting performance. He knocked down four of his five 3-point attempts and had a first-quarter dunk to put MHS up seven.

“He’s good,” Gardner laughed while describing his 6-foot-8 senior. “Pretty simple.

“Obviously a luxury to have with ball-handling, passing, shot-making inside and outside. That’s Alex. He puts in so much work. He’s super coachable. He doesn’t just set the tone on game days — he does it in practice as well.”

Brayden Jones knocked down a pair of 3s and finished with 10 points for the orange and black. Zaiden Wittekind scored 10 points of his own, four coming on a pair of dunks. He also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds and three steals.

And even the guys who didn’t score in double figures played important roles, as Trey Hawkins and Seth Britton each had four assists while Elyjah Lieras-Kelley and Izak Knighten added three apiece.

Marietta crushed Steubenville on the boards, finishing with a 34-11 rebound advantage. The Tigers also committed just seven turnovers to the Big Red’s 10.

Steubenville (5-6) got 17 points and four dimes from Santino Haney, while Keith Lewis chipped in 15 points and Kyleigh Hopkins added nine. The Big Red play fast, which allowed Marietta to show off some of its offensive prowess.

“They play a fast-paced, uptempo game,” Gardner said. “They run and gun and they set a lot of ball screens and they make it tough on the defense. That was up and down, kind of like an open gym style of play. We had guys make some shots, and so did they. That’s kind of how it went today. Hopefully if you’re a really good team you can play and win in multiple ways.”

Kendall knocked down a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 19-12 after a quarter of play. Haney scored the first five points of the second to get Steubenville within two, but a pair of Kendall treys put MHS up 10, and the Tigers led comfortably the rest of the way.

Kendall made back-to-back buckets in the third, putting him over the 30-point mark, to make it 54-41. Then, Hawkins assists Jones on two straight 3-pointers to stretch the lead to 60-41 going into the final period.

Owen Riley’s corner 3 at the 6-minute mark in the fourth put Marietta up 24, 69-45. The Tigers’ largest lead of the game came with 2:48 remaining when Wittekind’s dunk made it 78-50 to put the exclamation mark on the victory.

“It’s exciting,” Gardner said. “Zaiden gets out on the break and it’s like you know what to expect. It’s really cool to see our guys be excited for Zaiden, and Alex had a dunk in the first half. Izak’s obviously a high-flyer too. We’ve got a lot of really good athletes. We get some highlights plays, but I tell the guys it’s still only two points, so let’s make sure we convert them.”