Case Western Reserve University sophomore guard Mya Hartjes hit a jumper at the end of regulation to send the contest into overtime, but Marietta College was able to pull away in the extra period as the Spartans fell to the Pioneers 73-67 in Marietta, Ohio on Monday afternoon.

The loss was the third-straight setback for the Spartans, who fell to 5-7 overall, while Marietta improved to 9-4.

Hartjes was one of three Spartans to score at least 10 points in the game, finishing the contest with 11 points on a four-of-11 shooting effort, including two-of-five from behind the three-point line while adding seven rebounds. Junior guard/forward Emily Plachta led CWRU with 15 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and three blocks, and junior guard Maya Roberts made five-of-six attempts from the floor to score 13 points and added six rebounds.

Monday's game was a close affair throughout the contest and featured 18 lead changes and 14 ties over the 45 minutes of action. Marietta led by one, 13-12, after the first quarter and neither team had more than a two-point lead until the Pioneers went ahead 20-16 with 7:10 left in the second period. However, the Spartans responded with an 8-0 run, including a pair of threes from sophomore guard Jordyn Call, to go ahead 24-20 with 4:37 remaining in the half. The teams continued to go back and forth with four more lead changes and a tie over the rest of the half before Marietta took a 29-27 lead into halftime.

Plachta connected on a three for the first basket of the second half to put the Spartans back on top and CWRU took its largest lead of the game with 5:02 left in the third, going ahead 39-34 with 5:02 on the clock. CWRU remained ahead in the game for the next four minutes before the Pioneers tied the contest late in the period and the score remained tied at 43-43 going into the fourth frame.

In another closely played period, the Spartans found themselves down 59-54 with just 2:27 on the clock, but Hartjes cut into the lead with a second-chance three-pointer after an offensive rebound by sophomore forward Maura Schorr. Schorr went on to steal the ball on Marietta's next possession and then had a putback after an offensive rebound to tie the game at 59-59 with 1:03 left. After both teams were unable to score on their next possessions, Marietta's Paige Tolson made a driving layup with six seconds left, two of her game-high 17 points, to give the Pioneers a two-point lead.

After a CWRU timeout moved the ball into the Spartans' front court, Hartjes took the ensuing inbounds pass but found herself trapped after picking up her dribble. As time ran down, Hartjes lunged around her defender and launched a shot from approximately 15 feet out that found the bottom of the net and knotted the score with four-tenths of a second remaining in regulation. The Spartans ended up with one final chance to win the game after a five-second violation by the Pioneers on the next inbound play, but could not get a potential game-winning shot off.

Marietta would go on to take an early lead in overtime, scoring seven of the first nine points in the extra frame to go ahead 68-63 with 3:06 left. A driving layup by Roberts made it a one-possession game again with 1:46 to play, but the Pioneers pulled away late, going ahead by as many as seven points with 11 seconds left and claiming the 73-67 win.

CWRU finished the game shooting 35.8% (24-67) overall and 29.2% (7-24) from behind the three-point line, while Marietta shot 39.7% (25-63) overall and 28.0% (7-25) from long-range. The Spartans ended the contest with an 18-12 edge in points off turnovers and a 30-24 edge in points in the paint.

Monday night's game marked the final non-conference game of the regular season for CWRU. The Spartans will now turn their attention back to University Athletic Association play as the team hits the road this weekend to face 16th-ranked Washington University (Mo.) at 8:30 p.m. ET on Friday, January 17 in St. Louis and the 19th-ranked University of Chicago on Sunday, January 19 at 1:00 p.m ET in Chicago.

Spartan Notes

• Plachta matched her career-high in rebounds (8) and assists (4) on Monday. This was the fourth time in the last five games that she has been CWRU's leading scorer.

• Senior forward Evie Miller added two blocks in the game and now has 39 for the season, already the 10th-most in a single-season in team history with 13 games remaining on the schedule. Her 106 career blocks are five shy of matching former Spartan Emily Mueller for the fifth-most in team history.

• Monday's game was a makeup of the previously scheduled and postponed game between the two teams on December 4. The game was postponed after a highway accident created an impassible traffic jam for the CWRU bus.

• The Spartans are 4-9 all-time against Marietta and have lost five-straight matchups with their last win in the series coming during the 2009-10 season.

• CWRU finished its non-conference schedule with a 5-6 record.