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Tigers trounce Bulldogs to open tourney

By Jordan Holland 5 min read

MARIETTA -- Zaiden Wittekind scored a game-high 19 points and Trey Hawkins did a little bit of everything to help lead Marietta past Athens 74-50 in Tuesday's district tournament game at Sutton Gym.

Hawkins, the Tigers' junior point guard, tallied 18 points to go along with six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. He also defended Leo Martin, one of the Bulldogs' biggest scoring threats, for most of the game.

"I love Trey. He's one of my best friends. My brother," said Wittekind, who grabbed five boards and registered three assists and three steals. "Been playing with him since third grade. Love that guy. One of the best players I've ever played with."

Hawkins held Martin to two points in the first half. The Athens point guard finished with 11.

"Trey Hawkins was tremendous," said Marietta head coach Austin Gardner. "He guarded Leo Martin, their point guard and best player, and he contained him. He got the ball to the basket and created for others, and also made some outside shots and spaced the floor for us. I thought Trey had a really good night. You can always feel his presence out on the floor."

Wittekind has been in a slump from beyond the arc of late, but broke out of it Tuesday by draining 5 of 7 attempts from deep.

"Zaiden hasn't been shooting the ball great lately, but he's been working at it and staying with it," said Gardner, whose Tigers improved to 17-4. "He can still affect the game in a lot of ways. It was nice to see him make some shots again and play with some confidence and swagger because we're going to need that moving forward."

Wittekind knocked down three of his triples in the opening period to help MHS jump out to a 21-5 lead.

"I wasn't feeling it in warmups," Wittekind said. "I haven't made one the past couple games. I don't know, it just started falling, so I kept pulling. Teammates found me, got open shots and they were falling. It was good."

Marietta, which got 12 points from Owen Riley, 11 from Brayden Jones and seven from Logan Grosklos, held Athens to just 20% (2 for 10) from the floor in the first quarter.

The Tigers went up by 20 for the first time on Hawkins' basket at the 4:18 mark in the second. Grosklos followed with a floater to make it 31-9. They led 36-13 at halftime.

"I thought our defense was really good in the first half," Gardner said. "I thought our intensity was very good and our focus was very good. Second half, we went through the motions and just cared more about scoring. It was a great test and I thought our guys were focused and locked in. We got defense to offense and we shared the ball in the half-court and in transition. We're excited that we get to keep playing."

Hawkins buried a 3-pointer early in the second and Riley followed with a transition dunk to make it 41-14. Later in the third, Wittekind hit a trey before assisting Grosklos on another as the Tigers stretched the lead to 57-32. They were up 61-34 by the end of the third, and it was Jones' basket with 5:12 remaining in the fourth that made it 72-37 to trigger a running clock.

"We came out with intensity," Wittekind said. "I'll be honest, the last six, seven, eight games we haven't come out with any defensive intensity. That was a big reason we won."

Easton Nuzum led Athens (11-11) with 19 points and six boards. Weston Wheatley added nine points while Zachariah Mullins chipped in seven.

Athens finished 19 for 45 (42.2%) from the floor and committed 19 turnovers. Marietta shot 48.4% (31-64) and had seven TOs in what was the final game inside Sutton Gym for seniors Jones and Seth Britton.

"Seth and BJ, I've been here for three years and seen these guys progress from boys into men now," Gardner said. "The progression they've made has been great. It was great to see them play one more time in Sutton Gymnasium and finish with a win."

Marietta's win sets up a round three between the Tigers and the Warren Warriors. The rivals will square off at 7 p.m. Friday at Warrior Coliseum in Vincent with the winner earning a spot in the district semifinals. The two teams split in the regular season, with both sides defending their home court.

"It's going to be tough going there, but it'll be a great atmosphere and a great thing for high school basketball," Gardner said. "It'll be exciting. Obviously I hope we get it done and we continue to play. It'll be a big-time challenge. They’ve been playing great basketball and haven't lost since like Christmas. We understand the challenge of going in there and playing, but we'll game plan here the next few days and be ready to go on Friday."

Wittekind added, "Biggest game I'll ever play in. Playoff game. Split the season series with them. It's at their place. It's going to be packed, sold out. It's going to be a big one Friday."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.

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