MARIETTA, Ohio  – The No. 11 ranked Mount Union men's basketball team defeated No. 15 ranked Marietta 81-67 in an Ohio Athletic Conference game Wednesday at Ban Johnson Arena.

The Purple Raiders have now won 11 games in a row, are 19-3 overall and at 14-1 in the OAC take a two-game lead over Marietta (18-4, 12-3 OAC).

Nathan Bower-Malone (Stow) scored 21 and Collen Gurley (Akron / Hoban) 19 with a game-high seven assists to lead the Raiders while D'Vontay Friga (Cuyahoga Falls) finished with 15 points off the bench.

Jason Ellis had a game-high 23 points to lead Marietta.

Gurley scored 17 points in a first half that saw Mount Union take a 43-25 halftime lead. The Raiders pushed it to a 51-31 lead on a Tanner Slack (New Concord / John Glenn) layup with 15:52 left, but Marietta rallied with 10-straight points and eventually brought the score within a bucket, 66-64 with 2:57 to play. Gurley then hit a shot and Bower-Malone scored seven straight as a 9-0 Mount Union run over the next two and a half minutes put the game way. The Raiders ended up finishing the game on 15-3 run, going eight-of-nine from the free throw line.

Marietta made just 1-of-23 three-pointers for the game while Mount Union picked up its first win at Marietta since the 2015 OAC Tournament title game. 

Mount Union next plays Saturday at 3 p.m. against Heidelberg in the second game of a women and men's basketball doubleheader in Alliance.