Marietta boys pull away from Belpre on senior night
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Two seniors led Marietta in scoring to help lify the Tigers to a 59-46 victory over Belpre on senior night Saturday at Sutton Gym.
Isaac Koast scored a team-high 15 points while AJ Graham added 14 for Marietta, which won its third straight game to improve to 12-5 overall.
Koast knocked down three 3-pointers and was a perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line while Graham grabbed six rebounds and tallied a game-high five assists.
Alex Kendall, a junior, also was a major contributor to the Tiger victory. Kendall fell one block short of a triple-double, rejecting nine shots while putting up 13 points and 10 rebounds. He also led Marietta with three steals.
Kendall and teammate Izak Knighten's presence inside fueled a Marietta defensive effort that limited Belpre to 34% (16 for 47) from the floor.
MHS head coach Austin Gardner deployed an all-senior starting lineup, and it was a pair of 12th-graders who combined for Marietta's first points as Tommy Kerenyi assisted Braden Schau on a basket to tie the game at 2-all. Kendall entered the game and scored five straight points to put Marietta up 7-4, but Belpre used a 7-0 run, capped by Chris Copen's one-handed slam dunk in transition, to take an 11-9 lead after a quarter.
It was 18-14, Belpre, in the second quarter when Graham tallied five straight points to put Marietta ahead for good. Elyjah Lieras-Kelley turned a steal into a fastbreak layup to put the Tigers up four. Lieras-Kelley then attempted a 3-pointer that was off the mark, but Kendall tipped it in at the buzzer to give MHS a 27-21 halftime lead.
Treys by Koast and Graham stretched Marietta's lead to eight midway through the third period. A 3-pointer by Tucker Liston, who scored a game-high 22 points, got the Golden Eagles within five, but a pair of baskets by Seth Britton helped the Tigers extend their lead to 45-32 going into the fourth quarter.
Lieras-Kelley assisted Knighten on a bucket before Graham and Koast combined to make four straight foul shots to give Marietta its largest lead of the game at 21, 58-37, with 2:32 remaining, allowing Gardner to empty his bench.
Derek Liston joined Tucker Liston in double figures with 10 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds. Tucker Liston added five boards and four steals, while Copen finished with six points, six boards and two blocks. Belpre dropped to 9-9 overall and will look to get back over the .500 mark Tuesday at Eastern.
The Tigers have now doubled their win total from a season ago with 12. With Friday's victory over Warren, they're in the driver's seat for the inaugural Twin State League championship, which they can clinch outright with a victory Tuesday at Point Pleasant.
Jordan Holland can be reached at jholland@mariettatimes.com.