Claire Brown and the Lady Quakers topped Marietta, 66-60.
Kortney Kin and Olivia Waters combined for 40 points and 15 rebounds as Wilmington College rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to top Marietta, 66-60, in Ohio Athletic Conference action at Fred Raizk Arena Saturday afternoon.
The win moves the Lady Quakers to 4-5 in the OAC, 8-8 overall. Marietta drops to 1-7 in the conference, 3-12 for the season.
“We really struggled offensively most of the game and our first-half defensive effort might have been our poorest of the year,” Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve said. “We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do to shut down their shooters. We did everything we were supposed to do in the second half and got it turned around.”
The Pioneers hurt Wilmington with the long ball in the first half, drilling 6 of 12 shots from beyond the arc and led by as many as eight points before the Lady Quakers reduced the deficit to 34-32 at the break.
Marietta stretched its cushion to 44-34 when Rachel Jones nailed a triple at 16:11.
Down 50-41 with 11 minutes to play, Wilmington stepped up the defensive pressure and pounded the ball inside to Kin (Upper Sandusky/Riverdale) and Waters (Cincinnati/Purcell Marian). The frontcourt tandem combined for 18 points as Wilmington outscored Marietta, 21-5, to take a 62-55 lead at 1:49. The other three points in the surge were courtesy of an Allie Meranda (Georgetown) 3-pointer.
“Sometimes our kids think what we do is complicated, and I can’t figure that out,” Scheve said. “I think it’s as simple as can be. When we keep it simple, we can be pretty good. The last seven or eight minutes today we were pretty good.”
Kin finished with 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots while Waters scored career-high 17 points to go with six rebounds.
“Olivia has had a lot of great games lately. She’s been playing as well or better than anybody on our team,” Scheve said. “She’s drawing the toughest post defensive assignment, and her understanding of what we’re trying to do and her decision making has become a lot better over the last three weeks. She’s someone we’ve really learned to rely upon.”
Kin’s performance lifted the senior All-American past Rene Frey and Jenny Eagan to the No. 8 spot on the WC all-time scoring list. Kin has scored 1,342 points.
“There are a lot of really, really great names on that list,” Kin said. “I feel honored to just be a part of it.”
Marianne McGoron (Hamilton/Fenwick) added seven points for the Lady Quakers. Amy Bricker (Waynesville) handed out seven assists while Claire Brown (Batavia/Glen Este) contributed six rebounds and two blocked shots.