Waverly Takes Marietta 61-42 in Litter Media Game of the Week
Presented by McDonald’s, I’m Lovin’ It!
It was a slow start for Waverly, but they overcame a 10-2 deficit to earn a 61-42 DII Sectional Final win over Marietta Thursday.
As cold as Waverly was from the field, Marietta hopped off the bus just as hot, jumping out to to 8-point margin midway through the first period.
The home Tigers closed the gap to 14-12 to close out the first quarter, then got their first lead to start the second on a three by Gage Wheeler and didn’t look back. Waverly carried a 32-19 lead into the intermission.
“Originally we were gonna play full court and stay solid (defensively)” said Waverly’s Travis Robertson. “I felt like we let them (Marietta) off the hook. They wanted to just walk it up and kinda do their thing. We were able to run a jump the ball a bit, get it movin’ and the pace picked up.”
Zeke Brown had 12 of his 16 points by halftime as he and Will Father combined for 12 of the Tigers’ 20 second quarter points. Wheeler nailed three triples while Trey Robertson was held to just 4 points in the first half.
Robertson began taking advantage of driving to the basket in the third, hitting five field goals scoring 11 of Waverly’s 17 points in the quarter for a 49-31 advantage. He finished with 19 to lead all scorers.
Wheeler had 9 followed by Futhey’s 8, Mark Stulley with 7 and Hudson Kelly finished the scoring with a basket late. Brown and Robertson were selected as the McDonald’s Players of the Game.
Fourth seeded Waverly will host the fifth seed Sheridan March 4th. Sheridan defeated Fairfield Union 45-34 in Thornville Thursday night.