Marietta High played host Claymont tough in the first and fourth quarters but struggled during the middle periods.
Consequently, the J.D. Secrest-coached Tigers (0-1, 0-1) suffered a 66-39 setback to the Mustangs in a season and East Central Ohio League opener Tuesday night.
Adam McKnight led the orange and black cagers with 11 points. No other Tiger scored in double digits.
After going 0-13 on three-point attempts in its opener, Claymont found the range against Marietta.
The Mustangs made 11 long-distance shots.
Kohltin Miles had six 3-pointers, one off the school record, and finished with 20 points to lead the Mustangs.
Tyler Peterson added 12 points and Blake Albaugh 11.
The Mustangs were up 11-10 after one quarter and outscored Marietta 19-6 in the second quarter and 25-11 in the third.
Marietta is scheduled to play at Zanesville in an ECOL game at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Girls
Marietta 60, Vinton County 55
Erica Dawson scored 38 points as Marietta defeated host Vinton County 60-55 in a non-conference girls basketball game Monday night.
Vinton County jumped out to an early 7-2 lead but the Lady Tigers found their legs and closed the first quarter out on a 14-2 run to take the lead at 16-9.
The bench stepped up as foul trouble mounted for the Lady Tigers. Lain Weppler, Lexi Walsh, and Starr Johnson came up big on the night.
The second quarter was back and forth as MHS had an answer for each time the Lady Vikings had a run.
At the break break, Mariett owned a 28-21 advantage.
In the second half Marietta attacked the rim and stretched its lead to 41-31 with a little over three minutes left in the third period.
Vinton County then got Caitlyn Owings and Johnna Remy going as the two combined for all the scoring in the quarter and rallied to pull Vinton to within seven with a three at the buzzer.
Owings and Remy continued the momentum in the fourth by scoring a combined 16 points.
At the 4:05 mark of the fourth VC took the lead 52-50.
MHS kept its poise, however, as Dawson then scored 10 points in the stanza. Starr Johnson assisted Dawson in the scoring column by chipping in with six points in the period, and Marietta put it away at the foul line.
Parkersburg Catholic 65, Ritchie County 37
PARKERSBURG - One thing is a certainty when opposing teams travel to Parkersburg Catholic to take on the Crusaderettes of head coach Marty Vierheller-defense.
"We preach it (defense)," said Vierheller following Parkersburg Catholic's season opening, 65-37 win over Ritchie County. "If you don't want to play it, you will get real familiar with the bench."
And the Crusaderettes played a lot of it on Tuesday, coming away with 11 steals and forcing 25 turnovers against their Little Kanawha Conference North Division rivals. Leah Hughes, who topped both teams with six steals, led all scorers with 22 points while Maddie Roedersheimer added 14 points and as many rebounds.
