The Marietta College women’s basketball team put on a master display of defense in the final matchup of the 38th annual Jim Meagle Holiday Classic, sponsored by BSN Sports, with a 72-38 victory over Kenyon.

With the win, Marietta improves to 4-1 overall and the loss drops the Owls to 1-5 overall.

“We didn’t start the game how we wanted and we gave up a lot in the first quarter,” said Marietta head coach Jenna Andersen. “I thought we made the right adjustments in the second quarter on and played great together. It’s a great feeling to come away with two wins this weekend.”

The Owls got the scoring going as they put the first five points on the board, while keeping Marietta scoreless for the first two minutes. The Owl lead quickly evaporated as Hannah Kroft (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) scored from the paint and Adi Hill nailed a three-pointer to tie the game at five. After the Pioneers grabbed a 9-7 lead, Kenyon answered with a five point run to vault back into a 12-9 advantage. Later in the quarter, TJ Carpenter and Abby Garner came off the bench to score layups to give the Pioneers a 14-12 lead with 1:40 left. Kenyon closed strong with a 5-0 run, all from Alyssa Gest, to give them a 17-14 lead entering into the second quarter.

The Pioneers had the first possession of the quarter and made good with a layup from Ella McMillen, cutting the lead to one. Marietta then amped up the defensive pressure off of the made basket, which caused the Owls to turn the ball over on six of the next eight possessions. The Pioneers converted those turnovers to points with a 9-0 run, five of those points coming from Hill. Kenyon scored their first basket of the quarter at the 5:47 mark as Kiana Mollabashy hit from three-point range. The Pioneers kept up the pressure and closed out the half going 6 of 7 from the free throw line, giving Marietta a 37-23 lead going into the intermission.

Marietta opened the third quarter strong as they outscored Kenyon 11-2, including five points from Paige Tolson, causing the Owls to take a time out at the 7:00 mark. Both teams went cold from the field but Kroft’s tipin in the closing seconds gave the Pioneer a 52-32 advantage entering into the final frame.

The Pioneers held the Owls to six fourth quarter points as their defensive dominance continued. They were also able to get some reserve players into the game as Olivia Keeney, Mallory Plesac, Ashlyn Dyson, Sarah Podkul, and Alyssa Duskey all provided scores. Marietta would go on to win the game, 63-56.

In all, the Pioneers collected a total of 19 steals. The Owls turned the ball over 28 times and the Pioneers scored 35 points off of those turnovers.

Marietta was led by Hill with 12 points, on her way to claiming the Most Valuable Player award for the weekend. Garner finished with 11 points. Tolson was also named to the All-Tournament team and finished the contest with 9 points, three rebounds, and two steals.

Gest led the Owls with 12 points. For her efforts, she was also named to the All-Tournament team.

In the earlier game, Calvin University defeated Mount Union, 60-51. In addition to the Marietta and Kenyon players, Elizabeth Mason from the Purple Raiders and Katelyn LaRue and Anna Fernandez from Calvin were named to the all-tournament team.

Marietta will return to the court Wednesday when they host Case Western Reserve with tip off scheduled for 7 p.m.