ALLIANCE, Ohio-- The No. 9 ranked Mount Union men's basketball team fell to Marietta 85-77 in Ohio Athletic Conference play Friday night at the MAAC. 

Mount Union (6-2, 6-2) was led by junior Ethan Stanislawski (Massillon / Massillon Jackson) with a team high 16 points.

Juniors Darrell Newsom (Twinsburg) and Braedon Poole (McDonald) scored 14 and 13 points respectively for the Purple Raiders while senior Logan Hill (Massillon Massillon Jackson) and sophomore Chris Painter Jr. (Akron / St. Vincent St. Marys) had double digits of 11 and 10. 

Marietta (6-1,6-1) was pace by Mason Lydic who scored a game high 29 points. 

Marietta connected on their first three shots from outside the arch to take a 11-4 lead early on. Poole had a 5-0 run himself igniting a Raiders 12-3 run to take a 16-14 lead with 14:09 left in the first half. Painter, Newsom and Collen Gurley (Akron / Hoban) connected on a three each on a 11-2 run for Mount Union to lead 35-25. Both teams battled out the end of the first half with Mount Union taking a 48-41 lead into halftime. 

A back and forth second half saw the Raiders have the largest lead being nine on a Hill layup to start the second half. Marietta grabbed the lead in the second half with 10:49 left on two Jac Alexander free throws to give them the lead 60-58. Stanislawski hit two threes with 8:17 remianing to give Mount Union a 68-64 lead. Marietta finished on a 21-9 run to end the game. 

Mount Union heads to Marietta tomorrow to play the second of the two-game series at 6 p.m.