Trey Farley
tlf001@marietta.edu
The Pioneers bid for an undefeated season was stopped early in the campaign this year by the Saint Vincent College Bearcats in a close overtime battle that led to the Pioneers first loss of the young season on Nov. 24.
Luis Garcia hit two key free throws to give the Pioneers a 72-65 lead with under a minute to go in the second half. However, the Bearcats quickly responded in 13 seconds with a layup and a steal followed by an old fashioned three point play to cut the Pioneers lead down to two. Pioneer junior post man Eddy Grenert was intentionally fouled to stop the clock and capitalized by hitting both free throws to extend the lead back to four. With under 20 seconds left in the game, the Bearcats hit a three to cut the deficit to one.
Grenert was fouled again and this time only made one of two free throws which set the Bearcats up for a chance to tie the game. They did just that with a layup that left four seconds on the game clock. The Pioneers fired one last shot but missed, sending the game to overtime.
The extra period began with a Saint Vincent three pointer that was answered by Marietta’s Brennan McKean with a trey of his own. Luis Garcia added of three of his own giving the pioneers an 80-78 lead. That’s where the Pioneer scoring stopped as they went cold from behind the arc and the Bearcats scored seven unanswered points to ultimately win the game by a score of 85-80.
The Marietta effort was led by Grenert with 19 points. A.J. Edwards contributed 15 points and eight rebounds. Garcia had 14 points and Mckean also added 13 points of his own.
The Bearcats’ Jaylon Bell led all scorers with 31 total points in the contest. Assisting in the scoring for Saint Vincent were Bobby Swartwout and Austin Ford with 11 points.
The Marietta Pioneers began conference play on Wednesday at home against their rival Muskingum University. They were victorious by a score of 78-67. Their next game will also take place in the BanJo on Saturday against Wilmington College with tip off set for 3:00 p.m.
