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Pioneers top Muskies for 11th straight win

Marietta College’s Dillon Young (1) goes up for a basket during a college men’s basketball game against Muskingum Wednesday night at Ban Johnson Arena.

MARIETTA — Dillon Young tossed in a game-high 22 points to lead six Marietta College players in double figures as the Pioneers overcame a sluggish first half to down Muskingum University 94-76 Wednesday night at the Ban Johnson Arena.

After defeating Muskingum earlier in the season by 36 points, the ninth-ranked Pioneers found themselves leading by a single point at halftime before coming to life quickly in the second half to notch their 11th consecutive victory.

“We started out slow and were kind of playing down to our competition,” said Marietta College point guard Keith Richardson. “(Coach) VanderWal really chewed us out in the locker room and I think that it was gave us our spark.”

The Pioneers twice pulled out to leads of six points in the opening half but could not shake the pesky Muskies and a three-pointer by Jalen Paige in the closing minute of the half cut the Pioneer lead to 40-39.

Marietta big man A.J. Edwards, who came into the game averaging a team-high 19.0 points per game, scored just two points in the opening half while taking just three shot attempts.

“We just didn’t play our style of game in the first half,” said Marietta College head coach Jon VanderWal. “A.J. (Edwards) was getting double-teamed and he just kind of stopped posting up.”

After a little halftime wake-up call from their head coach, the Pioneers wasted little time getting Edwards involved in the offense in the second half.

A pair of freebies by Joshua Keyes actually gave Muskingum the lead on the opening possession of the second half but Edwards answered on the other end by going strong to the basket to put the Pios back in front for good.

After a defensive stop, Marietta added to their lead when Edwards posted up and got the ball inside before kicking it back out to a wide open Young who canned one of his four triples in the game.

Anthony Wallace’s bucket in transition off of a Richardson steal made it a six-point Pioneer lead and after a Marcus Dempsey basket briefly halted the Pioneer momentum, Edwards powered his way for another field goal and a 49-43 Marietta lead.

“When A.J. is not posting it up hard it affects everything else so I got after him pretty good at halftime,” said VanderWal. “We really needed him to get in there and demand the basketball and he did a tremendous job in the second half of just being a complete monster down there.”

Muskingum managed to stay within shouting distance of the Pioneers as a Dempsey basket with 16 minutes to play kept the lead at seven before MC went on a 15-2 run that increased their lead to 20.

Richardson played a large role in the run as the Pioneer junior scored six points and dished out three assists.

“Keith just did a great job of reading their defense,” said VanderWal of Richardson, who was a big key in the Pioneer offense turning the ball over just four times in the game. “They would make a mistake one possession and then over-correct it the next and Keith was able to see that and make the right play.”

Young missed just one of his 10 shot attempts in the game while also contributing four assists, four rebounds and three steals to the Pioneer attack.

“Dillon’s really kind of coming on now which is exciting,” said VanderWal of the Logan Elm graduate. “He’s had a great year but he hasn’t shot it as well as he can. The last three of four games you can see he’s starting to click.”

Joining Young in double figures for the well-balanced Pioneers were Edwards with 15, Wallace and Jack Thome with 13 apiece and Richardson and RaNeal Ewing with 12 and 11 points respectively.

Keyes led three Muskies (13-11, 7-10 OAC) in double figures with 19, while Dempsey and Rickey Wilson finished with 18 and 16 points respectively.

The win clinched at least a tie for the Ohio Athletic Conference title for Marietta College (20-4, 15-2 OAC) with the chance to win the title outright Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.) when they play host to Ohio Northern at what figures to be a jammed-packed Ban Johnson Arena.

“We’ve clinched at least a share of it already, but we really don’t feel like sharing with anybody, said VanderWal. “We’ve got to go make it happen on Saturday.”

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