Late Burst Pushes Marian Past Ohio Dominican In Zimmerman Memorial Classic

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Marian Knights used a decisive 11-2 run late in the second half to break open a close first-round contest and advance to the championship game of the 2009 Charles B. Zimmerman Memorial Classic with a 64-52 victory over Ohio Dominican University.

Marian improved to 7-5 with the win and advanced to the tourney title game for the fourth time in six all-time Zimmerman Classic appearances. The Knights have lost to Wittenberg in each of their three previous title game appearances - in 1999, 2001 and 2005. Ohio Dominican, coached by former Wittenberg assistant Artie Taylor, dropped to 6-7 with the loss.

ODU trailed most of the game, but the Panthers closed to 44-42 with 6:04 left in the game. Marian responded with six straight points from three different players. After Ohio Dominican hit two free throws, the biggest shot of the game was hit by Marian's Brandon Malone, a three-pointer at the 4:11 mark.

The Knights put the game away with 9-of-10 shooting from the free throw line. In fact, shooting from the charity stripe was statistically the only significant difference between the two teams as Marian hit 22-of-26, compared to 11-of-18 for Ohio Dominican.

Individually, Marian was paced by the 15 points and six rebounds of Jordan Tucker, followed by 13 points from Malone and 10 points and six rebounds from Mac Fiely. Tucker hit 7-of-7 free throws in the game.

The two teams split 72 rebounds right down the middle, and Marian actually finished with one more turnover in the game, which came on a shot clock violation with less than one second remaining. Ohio Dominican, which is one of just four schools to win a regular season basketball tournament at Wittenberg (2002) other than the host team, was led by Jim McCurdy's 11 points off the bench, followed by Adriene Rodriguez and Aaron Gibbs with 10 points apiece. Gibbs added nine rebounds.

Marian will play in the championship game at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30, while Ohio Dominican was relegated to the consolation game at 2:15 p.m.