Pioneers suffer 115-79 defeat at Wilmington

Dec. 17, 2005
WILMINGTON, Ohio - The struggles continue for the Marietta College men's basketball team in its second season of the Fun & Gun.

The latest example, a 115-79 loss at Wilmington Saturday (Dec. 17) afternoon, was the Pioneers' fourth straight loss to open the Ohio Athletic Conference season and brings their overall record to 2-7. With the win, Wilmington improved to 8-1 overall and 3-1 in the OAC.

Marietta's top two outside threats — junior Chad Sponseller (Canton/GlenOak) and sophomore Craig Stewart (Circleville) — connected on just 4-of-18 from long range and all four came from Sponseller, who finished 4-of-11 and scored a team-high 16 points.

As a team, the Pioneers shot 29-of-76 (.382) from the floor and 9-of-31 (.290) from three-point range. They all made just 12-of-27 (.444) from the charity stripe.

Wilmington, meanwhile, finished 51-of-86 (.593) from the floor, including 1-of-1 (1.000) from long range and hit 12-of-23 (.522) from the line. The Quakers won the battle of the boards 51-38 and forced Marietta into 25 turnovers while committing 18 of their own.

Five Wilmington players finished in double figures. Eric Sterling had a team-high 21 points, while adding 10 rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block. Justin Gaines added 19 points, while Nick Berter had 11 and Brett Carpenter and Josh Rohrbacher each added 10.

No other Pioneer besides Sponseller had more than ten points. Junior Ryan Wilkinson (Wilmington/Clinton Massie) had eight points in front of the hometown crowd, while sophomore Kyle Reed (Burbanks/Northwestern) and freshman Colby Reese (Thurman/River Valley) each added seven in the loss.

In addition junior Matt Rucker (Proctorville/Chesapeake) pulled down a team-best seven rebounds and had two blocks.

Marietta will take a break from OAC competition over the holidays, by hosting the 35th Annual Shrine Tournament December 29-30. Action kicks off Thursday evening, when Adrian (Mich.) battles Bridgewater (Va.) at 6 p.m. with Marietta taking on Grove City (Pa.) at 8 p.m.

Freshman Colby Reese had a career-high seven points at Wilmington

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