Marietta College’s Elijah Harden (2) pulls up for a jumper during Saturday’s game against Baldwin Wallace at Ban Johnson Arena. (Photo by Bella Faith Photography)

Marietta College swept the season series against Baldwin Wallace with a 99-83 win Saturday in Ohio Athletic Conference men’s basketball.

The Pioneers move to 9-11 overall and 4-7 in the OAC. The Yellow Jackets slip to 6-14 on the season and 3-8 in the OAC.

“This team has shown a lot of resilience. We’ve done a great job all season of learning from different situations and it great to see our growth,” Marietta head coach Andy Bucheit said. “Our starters did a great job of setting the example today. This was a must-win situation and our starters delivered.”

Titus Baskerville hit his first five shots from behind the three-point line to give Baldwin Wallace an early six-point lead, 19-13. The Pioneers answered with nine straight points capped with back-to-back three-points from Jake Singleton and Darius Carden to take the lead.

The teams traded small leads until Marietta went on a 9-0 to go in front by seven, 38-31, with three minutes left in the first half. Three points from Jai Guerra-Howard, two baskets from Eliijah Harden and a layup from Luke Powell accounted for Marietta’s run. The Pioneers took a 44-42 lead into halftime.

Eight straight points from Mason Wisniewski extended the Pioneer lead to 10 points, 61-51, five minutes into the second half. Marietta gradually extended the lead and a three-pointer from Singleton with 4:17 left in the game stretched the lead to 22 points, 92-70.

Harden led all scorers with 29 points. Wisniewski notched a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Guerra-Howard finished with 18 points, seven boards and seven assists, while Singleton added 17 points. Trenton Collins chipped in with nine rebounds and Luke Powell added nine points and five boards.

Isaac Richardson led Baldwin Wallace with 22 points and six rebounds. Baskerville finished with 19 points and Brock Beech had 14 points, while AJ Pestello had nine points and eight rebounds.

Marietta hosts Otterbein on Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.

WOMEN

The Marietta College women’s basketball team welcomed in #10-ranked Baldwin Wallace University to the Ban Johnson Arena on Saturday and, despite a much improved performance in the second half, the Pioneers could not recover from a first half where they were outshot and out rebounded, dropping a home OAC contest, 89-66, to the Yellow Jackets.

The loss put the Pioneers with an overall record of 10-10 overall and 5-6 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Baldwin Wallace improves to 18-2 on the season and perfect 11-0 in conference games.

“We’re not a team that gives up,” said Marietta head coach Jenna Andersen. “BW shot over 70% and they outrebounded us by 10 in the first half. I told them that we’re not going to let them run us over. I’m proud of the effort they showed in the second half. We fought tooth and nail and tried to get back into this thing, but we let a good team get out to a great start. We just could not recover.”

The Pioneers began the game with a couple of baskets from Ava Heller to help push them to a 5-2 lead. The Yellow Jackets answered with a 15-0 run, getting four points from Brooke Thompson and a pair of three pointers from Kaycie Badylak, to take early control. Kelsey Harlan hit a pair of shots to help try to keep the Pioneers close, but Marietta was held scoreless for the final two minutes of the period. Baldwin Wallace closed out with a 5-0 run in a quarter where they shot 71.4% (5-for-7) from the field and led 29-13 at the end of the first quarter.

The Yellow Jackets widened the gap in the second quarter as Marietta shot only 4-for-15 in the second period. The Pioneers did go 7-for-8 from the free throw line to stay above water. Amelia Uhrig scored first in the quarter but Baldwin Wallace answered with a 7-0 run. Kendall Sury completed a three-point play at the 4:42 mark to stop the run. Abby Garner stepped up and scored nine of Marietta’s final 10 points, but the Yellow Jackets still held a big lead, 50-28, going into intermission.

The Pioneers put together a much better third quarter but could not cut into the Yellow Jacket advantage. After giving up the first five points, Marietta got tough layups from Heller, Garner, and Emma Rasmussen to go on a mini 6-0 run. Late in the period, TJ Carpenter scored a basket and bonus free throw to keep the deficit at 24 and Tess Trimble came off the bench to bury a three pointer in the closing seconds to put the score at 69-46 going into the final period.

Marietta got a three-pointer from Heller and a couple of shots from Ella McMillen in the fourth quarter, but despite a 11-2 Pioneer run to end the game, the deficit was too much to overcome. The Yellow Jackets cruised to an 89-66 victory.

Garner led Marietta with 14 points and six rebounds. Heller finished with 12 points.

Badylak and Leah Riley paced the Yellow Jackets with a game-high 15 points apiece.

Marietta will travel to Otterbein University this Wednesday for an OAC matchup, with a scheduled 7 p.m. tip-off.