Marietta’s Leigha Lauer (4) goes up for a basket during Friday’s game against Belpre at Sutton Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

MARIETTA — November 22, 2024, will no doubt be a day Marietta Tiger senior Leigha Lauer will remember for a long, long time.

First off, in the afternoon she announced that she will be playing collegiate soccer at Division I Wright State University.

Later on, she scored 26 points while surpassing the 1,000-point mark in her Tiger career to lead Marietta to a 73-38 win over the Belpre Golden Eagles at Sutton Gymnasium in their season opener.

“I wasn’t too worried about it I just wanted to get the win with my teammates,” said Lauer. “It’s been a goal of mine since I started playing basketball so I’ve always just tried to be the best that I can be.”

The Tiger senior and her team got off to an incredible start as they out-pointed the Eagles 30-9 in the first quarter.

Lauer accounted for a dozen points alone in the first period as the Tigers played error free basketball to give the MHS faithful a preview of what they hope will be a special season.

“I’m very excited for what is to come this year and I think this will be the best team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Lauer. “Today was a special day, no doubt.”

Marietta kept things rolling early in the second quarter as back-to-back two-pointers by Lauer and fellow senior Jacey McKnight pushed the lead to 34-9.

Freshman Kendall VanderWal knocked down her second triple of the game to extend the lead before buckets by Hayleigh Chidester and Mikayla Oliveira shoved the lead to 32 points.

Lauer capped a 15-0 MHS run by scoring back-to-back buckets once again and the rout was on for the home team.

The Tigers carried a 53-18 lead into the intermission and cruised the rest of the way to notch the win.

After not turning the ball over at all over the first 12 minutes the Tigers did get a bit sloppy late in the opening half as they committed five miscues in the final four minutes of the half.

“It’s great to get that first win but that’s probably the sloppiest we have looked from all of our scrimmages until now,” said Tiger head coach Ryan McClain.

“We’ve got some things to improve on but it always nice to get that first one.”

Lauer finished the night 11-of-12 from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from the foul line while also yanking down five rebounds, dishing out three assists and coming up with four steals.

“She’s our engine and what people haven’t seen is how good she has been shooting from outside,” said McClain of Lauer. “She’s just a five-tool player and we are so fortunate to have her on our team.”

McKnight and senior Alyssa Baker also reached double figures for the winners with 11 points apiece.

Baker filled out her stat sheet nicely with six assists and four steals.

Oliveira added nine points in her first game for the Tigers while VanderWal scored seven points and dished out three assists in her varsity debut.

Marietta shot a blistering 58 percent from the field and combined to dish out 17 assists as a team compared to just five for the Eagles.

Belpre was led by sophomore Gracie Bills with 15 points and nine boards while Alivia Harrington knocked down three triples to finish with nine points.