Dec. 20, 2006
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Marietta College men's basketball team wrapped up its trip to the D-III Desert Shootout with a 82-51 loss to No. 18 Carthage (Wis.) College in the championship game Wednesday (Dec. 20) afternoon. [Box Score]

With the win, the Red Men improve to 8-1 overall, while the Pioneers fall to 3-6 on the year.

Carthage came out firing from long range and never slowed down. In the end, the Red Men connected on 15-of-30 (.500) from long range and 26-of-55 (.473) from the field overall. Marietta finished 19-of-52 (.365) from the floor, including just 4-of-19 (.211) from beyond the arc. The Pioneers, who turned the ball over 19 times, out rebounded the Red Men 36-35.

Senior Matt Rucker (Proctorville/Chesapeake) and sophomore Isaiah Creasap (Wooster/Northwestern) each finished with a team-high 10 points to lead Marietta. Junior Kyle Reed (Burbank/Northwestern) matched a career-high with seven boards and Rucker and junior Adam Rockhold (Olmsted Falls) also added six rebounds.

Four Red Men finished in double figures with Brian Schlem leading the way with 18 points and Milos Vukosavljevic and Bill Shermerdiak were both right behind him with 17 points.

Marietta will return to action Thursday (Dec. 29) evening at home when it opens the 36th annual Shrine Tournament with a 7 p.m. match-up against Lynchburg (Va.) Olivet (Mich.) and Westminster (Pa.) go head-to-head at 5 p.m.

Sophomore Isaiah Creasap had 10 points Wednesday

Box Score