Marshall University Athletics
Men' Basketball Takes Out Morehead State, 85-71
11/29/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Men?s Basketball Takes Out Morehead State, 85-71
11/29/2003
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.?Senior forward Marvin Black (Cleveland, Ohio) and junior guard A.W. Hamilton (Georgetown, Ky.) each had a double-double in pacing the Thundering Herd men?s basketball team (1-1) to an 85-71 win over Morehead State Saturday evening in the Cam Henderson Center.
Black scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Hamilton scored 11 points and dished out ten assists.
Marshall trailed only twice the entire game, the first time coming early in the contest at 2-0, and then at 27-26 with 2:41 mark of the first half on a Morehead State free throw. However, on both occasions, the Herd promptly answered with runs of six points and seven points, respectively, to keep the momentum and the lead on their side. Marshall?s lead was seven at the halftime break, 36-29, and eventually grew to 19 as time winded down at the end of regulation.
?I think what you saw tonight was the execution of our system,? said Marshall coach Ron Jirsa, who improves his coaching record in Huntington to 1-1. ?It is a good system, and it works, and our kids are buying into that and starting to believe in it.?
In another telling statistic, Marshall committed only 11 turnovers, while the Eagles turned the ball over 22 times. The Herd, in turn, scored 29 points off of those turnovers, compared to only nine Eagle points off of Marshall?s miscues. MU outrebounded their second consecutive opponent and shot 37.7% from the floor for the game, including a 46.7% clip in the second half.
?I thought our team played better as the game went on, which is a great sign,? said Jirsa.
Ronny Dawn (Fort Thomas, Ky.) led Marshall in scoring with 17 points, with 12 of those coming on made three-point buckets. Enoch Bunch (Nashville, Tenn.) also scored in double-digits, adding 11 points.
For Morehead State, Chez Marks led all scorers with 22 points. Ricky Minard scored 17 points and had 12 rebounds coming off the bench, while Josh Graham also added a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds.
The Thundering Herd take on the University of Kentucky on Monday evening at Cincinnati?s U.S. Bank Arena. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. and can be seen on the Kentucky Sports Network and the game can be seen locally on WSAZ-TV.