Marietta’s Zaiden Wittekind (20) goes up for a dunk during Saturday’s game against Akron East at Sutton Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrson)

MARIETTA — After losing an entire week of school due to the winter weather, playing for the first time in nine days all with temperatures outside of Sutton Gymnasium barely above zero, one might have expected the Marietta Tigers to come out a bit cold in Saturday night’s game against the visiting Akron East Dragons.

Instead the Tigers came out white-hot as they scored 30 or more points in each of the first two quarters to roll to an 81-43 win over the Dragons.

Marietta scored 30 points in the first quarter and 31 in the second to deliver an early knock-out blow to the Dragons en route to their 12th consecutive victory.

The Tigers shot a blistering 73 percent (22-of-30) from the floor in the opening half including 9-of-15 (60 percent) from behind the arc.

“When we play unselfish and move the ball and play together we get a lot of good things that we want on offense,” said fourth-year Tiger head coach Austin Gardner. “Other than a couple of times when we got a little bit stagnant we did a great job of that tonight.”

Marietta’s Owen Riley (14) attacks the basket during Saturday’s game against Akron East at Sutton Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Tiger senior Owen Riley set the stage for what was to come by canning a three-pointer from behind the top of the key to open the game for Marietta.

Minutes later Riley connected once again from long range as did fellow senior Logan Grosklos to give the Tigers an early 11-3 lead.

Both Grosklos and Riley would knock down triples later in the quarter as the Tigers opened up a 30-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Tiger defense forced the Dragons into nine first quarter turnovers.

“When we are as efficient as we were tonight on offense it sets our defense up as well,” said Gardner. “With them having to take the ball out of the net we set our defense and set our press so it helps us on both ends of the floor.”

Marietta struck first in the second quarter on a two-pointer from Trenton McVey and after a brief 5-0 spurt by the Dragons, Marietta got back-to-back triples from seniors Lucas Miller and Braiden Plaugher.

Zaiden Wittekind’s two-pointer extended the MHS lead to 40-19 and after a two-pointer by East’s Dontez Alexander, the Tigers scored the next nine points to break things wide open.

Four points off of the Tiger bench by senior Kobe Alexander in the closing minute of the half sent the home team to the locker room with a comfortable 61-26 lead.

Scoring 30 points in a half is a challenge for most high school basketball teams, making the Tigers’ first and second quarters all the more impressive.

“When you score 61 points in the first half you have to be doing something right and obviously we did,” said Gardner. “Credit to the guys for spending time in the gym and shooting and it’s amazing how if your individual players get better your team gets better as well.”

East scored the first four points of the second half under a running clock before Riley broke their momentum with both a two-pointer and later on a triple as the Tigers cruised the rest of the way to remain unbeaten in the calendar year of 2026.

Riley led all scorers and rebounders with 26 points and eight boards while Wittekind added 23 points and six boards while matching Riley with a team-high four assists.

Grosklos added 12 points for the Tigers who improved to 15-2 on the season with an always tough match-up coming up Tuesday in New Philadelphia.

A deep Tiger roster has only gotten deeper of late despite the injuries to starter Trey Hawkins and impressive freshman Graesyn Moat.

Alexander, McVey, sophomore Keaton Mace and freshman Brecken Kroft have all seen their time on the court increase due to the loss of Moat and Hawkins, both who are expected back soon.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who are contributing and providing a lot of good minutes for us,” said Gardner. “We’ve been missing a few guys and when we get them back we should be in good shape.”

Creshaun Bearden led the Dragons in scoring with 14 points while Wharton and Dontez Alexander added 12 and 10 points respectively. East slipped to 2-14 on the season with the loss.