Trey Farley
tlf001@marietta.edu
The 11th ranked Marietta College men’s basketball team opened the 2015-2016 season this past Friday, Nov. 13, in front of a packed Ban Johnson Arena. The Pioneers squared off against the Westminster College Titans and ultimately defeated the visitors by a score of 100-82. This was the Pioneers’ first game since their run to the elite eight of last year’s NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament.
What started out as a well-played game by both sides turned into sloppy play by both teams, which allowed the nationally ranked Pioneers to secure a large lead. The Titans got into foul trouble early in the game and put the Pioneers in the bonus before the midway point of the first-half and the Pioneers capitalized on these mistakes by shooting 84 percent from the foul line. The Pioneers, on the other hand, got into foul trouble in the last five minutes of the first stanza including five fouls in the last two minutes alone. However the Titans did not make the most of the Pioneers’ mistakes by only shooting 62% from the charity stripe. Despite the mental miscues, the Pioneers still maintained either a lead or tie for the entire first half.
Pioneer domination continued in the second-half of the game as well as the sloppy play but with more turnovers instead of fouls. This would turn out to be the key to the Pioneers’ victory as they won the turnover battle 24-12 by the time the final buzzer went off. Marietta College managed to hold off the strong Westminster attack for the whole second half and maintained their lead for the entirety of the second-half of the game.
The Marietta offense was led by Luis Garcia, who scored 19 points, followed by A.J. Edwards with 18. Senior Brennan McKean also scored 12 points in his first game back from ACL surgery to round out the Pioneers’ leading scorers. Also contributing were Eddy Grenert and A.J. Ireland with 11 points each, Dillon Young with 7 points, and Kyle Dixon, Jack Thome, Anthony Johnson and, Nate Walker contributed 4 points each. Connor McCreary scored 3 points. Tyler Irish had 2, and Seth Legraen had 1 point.
Westminster also shared the ball well. Their leader scorers were Jaret Vrable, Austin Armwood, Mett Getsy, and Deontay Scott with 14, 12, 11, and 10 points respectively. The Titans also had nine other players score a point or more in the contest.
The Pios will return to Ban Johnson Friday Nov. 20 against Methodist University for the Marietta Shrine tournament. Fans can follow the Pioneers pioneers.marietta.edu all season.
