Marietta’s Zaiden Wittekind (20) finishes a thundering two-handed duck while a trio of Warren Warriors look on. Wittekind scored 27 points Monday as the Tigers downed Warren 75-66 at Sutton Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Sports Writer

Marietta seniors Owen Riley and Zaiden Wittekind combined for 59 points to lead the Tigers to a 75-66 win Monday evening over the Warren Warriors at a jam-packed Sutton Gymnasium.

The Tigers led by as many as 23 points in the second half but were forced to hold off a furious fourth quarter comeback by the Warriors to gain the season sweep over their arch-rivals.

That sweep marked the first time the Tigers have swept Warren since 2009.

“Sweeping the series for the first time since 2009 has been the focal point all offseason,” said Gardner, making note that assistant coach Zane Eschbaugh happened to be a senior on that 2009 team. “We were tired of splitting with them and we wanted to make sure we could get them both and I’m glad we found a way tonight.”

Things got off to a great start for the Warriors, who came into the game riding a four-game winning streak.

Back-to-back two-pointers to open the game by Blake Grimes gave the visitors a 4-0 lead but the Tigers scored the next six with three of them coming on an old-fashioned three-point play from senior Trey Hawkins.

After a free throw by Grimes cut the lead to one, the Tigers got buckets from Riley and Hawkins before Wittekind got an easy two off of an assist from Hawkins who had stolen the ball away from Warren.

The Tigers won the opening quarter 16-11 with Grimes scoring all 11 of the Warriors’ points.

Marietta began to pull away to begin the second quarter as Riley knocked down a triple to open the quarter and after a Shawn Adams two-pointer for Warren, the Tigers scored the next 12 points to stretch their lead to 18.

Two more triples from Riley highlighted the Tiger run and they appeared well on their way to a blow-out victory.

Warren managed to tread water as a rare four-point play by senior Hudson Elzey cut the lead back to 13 with just over 90 seconds to play in the half.

Tiger freshman Graesyn Moat drove the baseline for two before Grimes closed out the half for the Warriors with yet another bucket making it a 39-26 game at the break.

The Tigers led by Hawkins at point guard did not commit a single turnover in the opening half.

“Having Trey (Hawkins) out there helps us a lot because he handles the ball so well,” said Gardner.

Unfortunately for Marietta, Hawkins appeared to suffer some sort of an injury to his leg late in the first half and would not return for the rest of the game.

Warren has always been known as a great third quarter team but the Tigers came out and picked up right where they left off as they out-pointed the Warriors 15-5 to begin the second half to extend their lead to 54-31.

Wittekind’s triple forced Warren head coach Blane Maddox to call a timeout as the large crowd of Marietta fans roared its approval as it appeared the home team would cruise the rest of the way to a lopsided victory.

The Warriors are a very young team this year but they had no plans at all of giving up the ship and managed to trim the lead back to 18 at the end of the third quarter.

Wittekind’s two-pointer opened the final quarter to put Marietta back up by 20 but the Warriors scored the next nine points.

Two more field goals by Grimes and a triple by Adams preceeded a three-point play by Jaxon Venham to cut the lead to 60-51 with still almost six minutes to play.

Marietta stopped the bleeding with a two-pointer by Logan Grosklos followed by a Riley basket off of an assist from Wittekind but the Warriors answered with seven unanswered points and just like that it was a six-point game with three and a half minutes to play.

The Tigers turned the ball over five times in the final quarter as they struggled with the Warren pressure defense.

The combination of Wittekind to Riley worked once again to increase the lead to eight before Riley scored six unanswered points to get the lead back to 13 and provide the Tigers with some breathing room.

The Warriors managed to get it back to an eight-point game in the closing minutes but that would be as close as they would get.

Both Riley and Wittekind had double-doubles for the home team who improved to 11-2 with the win.

Riley had 32 points and 10 rebounds while Wittekind finished the game with 27 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

“Zaiden (Wittekind) and Owen (Riley) from especially an offensive standpoint were tremendous for us tonight,” said Gardner, whose team outrebounded Warren 35-19. “They came up big on a night where we needed them to, so it was an awesome win.”

Riley felt like the hard work the Tigers are putting in at practice is paying huge dividends on game night.

“We go to practice every day and go at each other with everything we have and sometimes we even hate each other,”said Riley. “At the end of the day it’s all love and it’s all team.”

After a few early exits in the postseason the past few years, Wittekind feels like this year’s Tigers have the chance to make some noise in the tournament.

“I think this team is capable of making a pretty good run,” said Wittekind. “We’ve been waiting for this team and this year, and I think we have a chance to go pretty far because this team is special.”

Grimes had a career game for the Warriors as he matched Riley with 32 points.

The Warrior sophomore connected on 13-of-17 shots from the floor and 6-of-7 from the line as he almost single-handiedly kept them in the game at times.

Adams finished with 10 points while Hudson Elzey added nine for Warren, who slip to 6-6 with the loss.

The environment at Sutton Gym was incredible and Gardner was quite pleased with the support his team is getting from the Tiger faithful

“Such an awesome atmosphere that these kids are going to remember forever and I told them tonight that this is something that they have built,” said Gardner. “I hope Tiger nation keeps showing up and the support in our community and the families has been absolutely amazing and we are super grateful for the atmosphere that they have created here.”

Warren will host Fort Frye on Thursday night while the Tigers will host Athens on Saturday evening.