Photo by Ron Johnston Marietta College’s Mike Hall makes a move with the ball during a college men’s basketball game against Mount Union Wednesday at Ban Johnson Arena.

MARIETTA — Marietta College is back in first place in the Ohio Athletic Conference men’s basketball standings.

With MC’s 81-69 triumph over visiting University of Mount Union and Capital University’s 63-62 setback at Heidelberg University Wednesday night, the Pioneers (14-2) overall and the 20th-ranked Crusaders (14-2) again share the top spot in the league with 8-1 marks.

The OAC second-place Purple Raiders are one game behind Marietta and Cap with a 7-2 record (13-3 overall).

“The OAC is probably one of the toughest conferences in the country,” said Marietta senior standout Anthony Wallace. “Every game we go into, we know it’s going to be a dogfight. We look forward to a challenge each and every night.”

MC, No. 13 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, has won four of its last five games. Its last double-digit win was at Muskingum University just before Christmas.

“Tonight didn’t feel like a double-digit win,” said Pioneer head coach Jon VanderWal. “We had to scratch and claw and fight for that game. But we have been in a lot of tight games lately. I wish we didn’t have so many tight games, but I think it builds a little bit of character. The guys understand how to handle certain situations, and I think we’re growing as a team.

“We still have a lot to figure out, but we’ve been pretty tested so far this year already.”

Wallace paced the Pioneers with a game-high 22 points, while freshman point Lukas Isaly scored a career-high 16, including a rare 4-point play in the first half. Mel Shuler added 13 markers, and Caleb Hoyng grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

“Anthony had a great night tonight,” VanderWal said. “And Isaly’s a heckuva ballplayer.”

Mount Union was led by D’Vontay Friga’s 15 points. Diallo Niamke chipped in with 13, while Nathan Bower-Malone and Tommy Stenger netted 12 and 9, respectively.

Sparked by Wallace’s 11 points and Isaly’s 10, Marietta had a 17-0 run near the midway point of the first half and led 37-20.

Mount Union answered that with seven unanswered points, and came back to only trail 41-37 at the intermission.

Early in the second half, the Pioneers stretched their advantage back into double digits, 50-40, on a Wallace jumper.

“Everybody was on tonight from downtown,” Wallace said. “So, it was hard for them to be in the gaps with us. It was kind of a one-on-one situation, and they were switching a lot on ball screens. We felt like we had a little mismatch, and we felt like we could take them any day.”

Again, though, the Purple Raiders rallied and cut it to one, 50-49, with about 12 minutes left in the contest. The visitors from Alliance then tied the score at 53-all on Collen Gurley’s steall and layup.

But after Shuler converted a couple of freebies, the Pioneers never looked back and stretched their advantage into double digits down the stretch.

“I’m happy to see we crushed them on the glass, 42-34,” VanderWal said. “That’s obviously a huge reason why we won the game.”