PHOTO GALLERY (coming soon)
WESTERVILLE, Ohio – It was a tough night to have a tough night… and that's what the fourth-seeded Otterbein men's basketball team had to endure in the quarterfinal round of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament inside a well-attended Rike Center.
The Cardinals, striving to beat No. 5 seed Marietta for a third time this season, started slow offensively and never led in the contest while trying to play catch-up. After it was all done, the Pioneers held off a charging home side to emerge 73-67 in the league's six-team bracket.
Marietta advances to play top seed and OAC regular-season champion John Carroll in Thursday's semifinals, while the Cardinals unfortunately end their season at 17-9 overall.
HOW IT PLAYED OUT:
- It was tough sledding early for Otterbein, which scored just seven points over the first ten minutes of game time. The Cards shot just 2 for 12 in the span while committing four other turnovers.
- Despite that brutal start, Marietta still only led 16-9 across the midway point of the first half.
- Otterbein finally got going with an 11-2 run and brought the crowd to life, trailing by just a bucket at the under 4:00 media timeout.
- The Pioneers regrouped admirably and came exploding out of the break, making four consecutive three-pointers as part of a 17-4 run to end the half. It played a huge difference moving forward in flipping a one-possession game into a 15-point margin at intermission.
- That lead shrunk to six points as the second half settled in, but Marietta answered with timely shots to expand the cushion back to a dozen.
- Otterbein never went quietly and chipped that deficit back down with critical makes, including five-straight points from Julian Heckman to leave the score just 61-57 with just under four minutes left.
- A huge momentum swing took place shortly thereafter on the opposite end, as Marietta guard De'Ovion Price slipped and barely knocked the ball toward the top of the key where teammate Frank Waganfeald was standing. The 6-foot-8 big man nailed a trifecta (all net) that forced a three-possession game once more.
- The Cardinals kept things interesting after MJ Davis nailed a corner three with 41 seconds left, bringing the game to 66-62, but Marietta hit all but one of its eight free throws from that point on.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
- Otterbein ended up shooting 44% from the field compared to just 34% on the Pioneer side, as the visitors held on after going just 27% in the second frame.
- However, Marietta connected on 12 triples while the Cardinals were just 5 of 23 behind the arc.
- Otterbein was 5 of 9 at the charity stripe and the Pios were 15 of 19.
- Jack Clement scored 15 in his final game as a Cardinal to lead four in double figures, with Cam Evans (14), Julian Heckman (14) and Troy Scowden (10) going stride for stride. Scowden made all but one of his six shots down low in traffic.
- A relatively clean game featured single-digit turnovers on both sides.
- David Sanford scored a game-high 17 for Marietta despite needing 18 shots to get there, while Waganfeald played a huge role off the bench with 16. Star big man Sahmi Willoughby, on the recent D3hoops.com National Team of the Week, churned out a double-double of 11 and 10.
