Women's basketball season ends with 77-68 loss at Wilmington

Feb. 17, 2006
WILMINGTON, Ohio — Marietta College women's basketball closed out its season Saturday (Feb. 18) with a 77-68 loss to host Wilmington College. The Pioneers entered the afternoon needing to upset the Quakers and a little help from Muskingum against Heidelberg to earn the eighth and final seed to next week's Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament. A 17-6 Quaker run to close out the first half ended the Lady Pioneers' hopes of accomplishing that task. Heidelberg ended up beating Muskingum to earn the eighth seed anyway.

With the win, Wilmington improved to 18-7 on the year and 13-5 in the OAC. Marietta finished the year 6-19 overall and 3-15 in league play.

The Pioneers opened the game with a 2-0 lead on an Abby Hess (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) basket. Wilmington followed with a 12-0 run to take a12-2 lead with 16:42 to go in the half, as Marietta didn't hit another field goal until 15:22 on the clock.

It was a Quaker drought that allowed the Pioneers to fight back into the lead however as following Wilmington's basket that gave it the 10-point lead, they didn't score their next field goal until 11:48 left in the half. As a result, Marietta completed its 20-4 run with a sophomore Justine Pagenhardt (Oakland, Md./Southern Garrett) jumper at the 9:52 mark.

The Pioneers twice led by seven points of the next few minutes, including 16-19, but the Quakers put together another run, this time 17-6, to close out the half and take a 36-32 lead into intermission.

Wilmington increased its lead early in the second half to 13 points, 43-33, with 16:51 remaining. Marietta was able to get it down to nine points seven different times, but never any closer, as Wilmington escaped with the 77-68 victory.

Both teams shot the ball relatively well but were troubled by turnovers. Marietta finished 28-of-61 (.459) from the field, but just 1-of-8 (.125) from long range and had 22 turnovers. Wilmington shot 26-of-58 (.448) from the floor and hit 7-of-17 (.412) from three-point range to counter 26 turnovers.

Marietta sophomore Sara Burns (Greenville) finished with a game and career-high 20 points, while adding eight rebounds, five steals and three assists.

Pagenhardt added 18 points and four steals. She ended the year with 481 points (19.2 ppg) and the OAC's scoring leader.

Hess also contributed 12 points and eight rebounds, while senior Tabi Taylor (New Matamoras/Frontier) finished her career with a six points and four rebound effort.

Wilmington was paced by Kelly Peters with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Katie Streck and Samantha Hood add 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Freshman Sara Burns had career-high 20 points against Wilmington

Box Score