| A locked-in Blue Raider basketball team looked to be putting Marshall away early on their home court, but a resilient Herd offense made things interesting for the league-leading Raiders in the Cam Henderson Center Saturday night.
After trailing by 21 at the half and by 20 for much of the second half, the Thundering Herd began pouring shots in late in front of a raucous crowd in Huntington to climb within single digits and put a small scare into Middle Tennessee before falling 97-86. “That was a fantastic environment,” Head Coach Kermit Davis said. “The Marshall fanbase having 8,000 people here tonight is fantastic representation for our league. “That first half was about the best half of basketball we’ve played nest to the first half at Ole Miss,” Davis added. “[Marshall Head Coach] Dan [D’Antoni] is about as good of an offensive coach as there is in college basketball and for about the last five minutes we just had to hold on.” The win was number 300 for Davis at the helm of the Blue Raider basketball program and the 1,200th victory in the program’s history. Middle Tennessee (24-4, 14-1) shot 52.3 percent on the evening and hit 23-of-26 free throws (88.5 percent). The Blue Raiders turned the ball over just nine times, marking the 12th game this season with fewer than 10 turnovers. Six Raiders scored in double digits in the contest, the second time the squad has done so this season. Marshall got on the board first with an old-fashioned 3-point play but Giddy Potts and Reggie Upshaw were quick to give MT the lead with a triple and a layup, respectively. After Marshall tied it up at the free throw line, Middle Tennessee reeled off a 6-0 run to go up 11-5 and would go on to take a 22-8 lead just six and a half minutes into the game. Marshall made the score 25-11 on a free throw, but then Williams – already with six points – began to take over the game down low. The senior scored 10 of MT’s next 14 points to fuel a 14-2 run and put the Blue Raiders on top 39-13. The Herd began to get in more of a rhythm offensively late in the first half, but Brandon Walters got back-to-back baskets inside the final two minutes before Marshall closed the first half scoring with a triple to make the halftime score 47-26 in favor of the Blue Raiders. Williams got the Blue Raiders going again in the second half, slamming home a lob from freshman guard Tyrik Dixon on the half’s first possession. The Birmingham native finished the night with a team-high 25 points and added eight rebounds in 36 minutes. It was his 10th 20-point outing of the season. Marshall climbed back within 20 at the 16:57 mark and again with 15:29 remaining, but Antwain Johnson answered for the Blue Raiders with a triple from the corner and one for a 4-point play to push the score to 60-37. The Thundering Herd began to catch fire offensively, but the Raiders had an answer for nearly every basket and held a 24-point lead with 5:55 left in the game at 80-56. Marshall hit a turning point after that, scoring seven straight and then narrowing the lead to 14 with 2:01 to go. Three consecutive empty possessions allowed Marshall to get the deficit back to single digits for the first time in over 34 minutes with just 57 seconds on the clock. The Blue Raiders were then forced to make free throws to close the game out and did just that, making 9-of-10 attempts from the charity stripe in the final minute to put away Marshall. Potts added 19 points, five rebounds and three assists for the Blue Raiders. Reggie Upshaw (12), Tyrik Dixon (10), Xavier Habersham (10) and Brandon Walters (10) were the other double-digit scorers for MT. Johnson also finished the evening with nine, one shy of giving the Raiders a seventh double-digit scorer. Middle Tennessee has a long break in the week ahead and will not return to the court until Sunday, Feb. 26, when they take on UAB in Birmingham. |
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