In an unusual season, the Marietta Pioneers were able to persevere and defeat all challenges going 9-1 in the regular season. The Pioneers clinched the OAC regular-season title after defeating Ohio northern twice this weekend. Marietta has earned this title 6 of the last 7 years under coach Jon VanderWal.
Marietta had a convincing win at Ohio Northern on Friday with a score of 90-77. The Pioneers had five players score double digit points. Marietta controlled a majority of the first half and entered intermission with a score 49-37. The story was the same in the second half as Marietta paved their way in the win.
In their 7th straight win, they shot exceptionally well with 50% field goal percentages from both the three and total field goal percentages. They were able to hold Ohio Northern shooting to 42% from the field and 36% from behind the arch.
Leading the charge was Jason Ellis and Mason Lydic both with 17 points. The other double digit scorers were Lukas Isaly, Tim Kreeger, and Brett Martin all contributing 10 of their own.
Saturday Ohio Northern came into the Banjo for the Marietta Pioneers senior night. It was an electric first half that was back and forth except for a couple exceptional runs that gave Mareiatta the edge at half with a score of 52-34.
The second half had multiple big runs from the Pioneers as they continued to dominate the game. Marietta was able to maintain their play and beat the Polar bears 105-72.
Kyle Matoszkia had an ideal night for any senior on senior night shooting 9-10 from the field and scoring a career high 21 points and hauling in six rebounds. Also playing well for the Pioneers was Lukas Isaly draining four three pointers and finishing with 16 points.
The four seniors, Jason Ellis, Kyle Matoskia, Tim Kreeger, and Jake Montgomery were able to cap their last regular season game with a win and the clinching of a regular season title.
The season consisted of a two game series against five teams in the conference, one home game, and one away on Fridays and Saturdays. Marietta had two cancelations and did not compete against Otterbein the first week of the season and Capital the last week of the season. Marietta was able to schedule Ohio Northern for the final two games. The only loss of the season came from a close match-up against Baldwin Wallace. Marietta split that series 1-1, winning the other game by a big margin of 107-87.
The rest of the season series consisted of 2-0 sweeps against Muskingum, Wilmington, Ohio Northern, and the most impressive matchup was against the talented, number 9 ranked, Mount Union Raiders. The Pioneers showed how dominant they can be and are heading into the tournament as the number one seed hosting the number 8 seed Otterbien on tuesday (March 2).
The end of the season statistics consists of conference-leading players from Marietta’s top talents. Kyle Matoszkia has proven to be efficient as he sits at number three in the conference in field goal percentage shooting 62.3% from the field. Following right behind him at the number four spot is Tim Kreeger shooting 59.2%. Marietta has shown to shoot well from behind the arch, leading the way was Mason Lydic making half of his attempts shooting exactly 50% sitting third in the OAC. Jason Ellis shot the ball well from 3 as well making 45.5% of his shots at the number 5 spot in the conference. Ellis also led the team in scoring, pouring in 147 points through 10 games. Matoszkia was the leading rebounder on the Pioneers, hauling in 65 rebounds which was 5th in the OAC.
By Logan Domer
