ALLIANCE, Ohio—The Mount Union men's basketball team head on and defeated Marietta 73-71 at home in a rematch of last years Ohio Athletic Conference Championships game and run its win streak to eight straight Wednesday night.
 
The Purple Raiders (12-1, 5-1 OAC) were led by junior Christian Parker (Canton / GlenOak) scoring 24, picking up nine rebounds and having a school-record seven blocks.  
 
Senior Darrell Newsom (Twinsburg) connected on five threes scoring 17 points while senior Jeffery Mansfield (Wilmington) was one point and one rebound shy of a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.
 
Marietta (9-4, 4-2 OAC) was led by Sahmi Willoughby with a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.
 
Mount Union jumped out to a 16-4 lead with Parker scoring six points while Poole scoring four. Marietta responded with a 17-3 run of their own to lead the game 21-19. Mount Union responded with a layup from Poole and then a Newsom three to regain the lead 24-21 but Marietta battled with back-to-back threes to lead 27-24.
 
Mount Union and Marietta didn't get a lead bigger than three the rest of the quarter which saw Mount Union connect on five free throws and Marietta connect on three before the break with the score being tied at 36.
 
Marietta got the first basket of the second half but a layup then dunk from Parker and a three pointer from senior Collen Gurley (Akron / Hoban) gave Mount Union a 43-38 lead early in the second half. Marietta hit a three pointer but another big run this time an 8-1 run with Newsom hitting a three and a layup gave Mount Union a 51-42 lead.
 
Mount Union pushed the lead out to 64-51 on a 13-6 run which included six points from Parker and Newsom each. Marietta made it a game going on an 21-9 run getting within one on a three pointer. Mount Union finished off the game though with a free throw from Mansfield to ice the game.
 
Mount Union now heads to Westerville to take on Otterbein on Saturday with a 2 p.m. tip off.