In front of a record-setting, raucous Saturday night crowd in the Kline Center, the Red Devils defeated the Marietta Pioneers 80-65 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 2. About 1,500 fans packed the gym and watched the Red Devils score 28 points in under seven minutes to start the game.
Adam Honig ’14 led the way with 32 points on 12-15 shooting, and fellow First-team All-Conference selection Gerry Wixted ’15 added 20. “It wasn’t rocket science,” said head coach Alan Seretti as he deflected the credit to his players. “At the end of the day, we had the best two players on the floor.”
Following a pre-game warm-up during which Coach Seretti described the locker room hallway as “shaking” and “the loudest it’s ever been,” Wixted gave the eager crowd reason to remain on their feet on the first possession when he nailed a three from the right-wing. Two minutes into the game, Adam Honig ’14 would start his hot shooting with a three to make the score 10-4. Brandon Angradi ’16 drained his first three shots, all from behind the arc. His second and third three-pointers came on back-to-back possessions, the latter of which made the score 28-12 at the 13:23 mark. The Red Devils hit their first seven field goals and Angradi’s third three marked their tenth field goal in only eleven attempts.
After Marietta sliced Dickinson’s lead to 10 with 3:05 left in the half, Chris Cox ’15 threw down his first of two crowd-igniting dunks to make the score 38-26. Dickinson entered halftime with a 40-26 lead, and Marietta did not come closer than 14 points for the remainder of the game.
Tucker Landy ’14 opened the second half with a layup, and Honig followed with a layup of his own to make the score 44-26. A basket by Steve Collins ’15 gave the Red Devils their first twenty-point lead, 57-37, with 13:05 left to play.
The onslaught continued when Dickinson went on a 9-0 run to take a game-high 68-44 lead. The run was highlighted by a three consecutive plays where Marietta did not even get a shot off. Honig hit a step-back three right in front of the Dickinson crowd, one of his five makes from behind the arc, then stole the ball on the other end and fed Cox on a fast-break. Cox finger-rolled it in on an acrobatic layup where he jumped from twelve feet out and got high enough to kick a Marietta player in the throat. When he got back on defense, he picked off a pass a went coast-to-coast to slam home a two-handed dunk and hang on the rim with his left-hand, raising the crowd noise to its loudest point of the night.
With three and a half minutes left in the game, Honig hit his fifth three-pointer to make the score 75-57, and a Landy free throw with 1:01 left gave the Red Devils point number 80. Saar Ziv ’13 dribbled out the clock and the Dickinson student section stormed the court in an organized, polite manner as covered on the front page.
The Red Devils shot 57.7 percent, including 55.6 percent from three. Defensively, they held Marietta to 36.8 percent. Both players and coaches believed this was the Red Devils’ best game of the season. “We’ve played better and better as we’ve gotten healthy over the course of the year but we haven’t put a game together where we played well and made shots. We finally did that tonight,” said Coach Seretti.
Honig, after being raised up onto the shoulders of the crowd, said “We’re clicking at the right time, what more could you ask for. Everybody is hitting on all cylinders. With our guys pulling together right now, it’s just awesome to play.” Cox reflected the attitude of the team and added “It’s been an incredible feeling. We don’t want to stop here, we just want to go all the way. That’s our goal.”
The win gives Dickinson its first trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Red Devils travel to Ohio to play against the 23-5 Wooster College Fighting Scots. Wooster’s Timken Gymnasium holds over 2,500 people and is said to be one of Division 3 basketball’s loudest places to play. “Supposively it’s a fun atmosphere,” said Honig, “and we’re looking forward to it.” The second round commences on Sat., March 9 and tip-off is at 7 p.m. A win would give the Red Devils a Sweet-16 berth and a game against the winner of Cabrini at Ohio Wesleyan on Sat., March 16.
