Marshall University Athletics
Toledo Holds Off Late Marshall Run, Wins 83-74
1/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Toledo Holds Off Late Marshall Run, Wins 83-74
1/15/2005
Marshall senior guard A.W. Hamilton scored a career-high 20 points against Toledo. Photo by Matt Riley |
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. ? Toledo senior Keith Triplett scored a game-high 22 points to lead the Rockets past the Thundering Herd, 83-74, Saturday evening in Mid-American Conference action in the Cam Henderson Center.
The Rockets improve to 7-7, 3-2 in the MAC, while the Herd falls to 3-11, 0-5 in league play.
The Herd could not overcome a hot-shooting, fast-starting Toledo team ? for the game, the Rockets were 56% from the floor (28-50), 46.2% from three-point range (6-13), and 72.4% from the free throw line (21-29).
With Marshall leading 9-7 four minutes into the game, the Rockets went on a 12-0 run that put Toledo up for good. Toledo?s lead stretched to 18 on four occasions in the first half before a Joe Miles (Forestville, Md.) three-pointer at the buzzer cut the Rocket advantage to 13 at the half, 41-28.
In the second half, Marshall upped its intensity on the defensive end, and cut the Toledo lead to three, 60-57, with 10:45 to go in the game on another Miles three-pointer, and then to two a few minutes later on a dunk by David Anderson (Levittown, P.R.) to make the score 61-59. The Rockets then scored six out of the next seven points, and pushed its lead to seven, 67-60, with 5:45 to go in regulation. Marshall again got the lead to two points at the 4:17 mark (69-67), but it would get no close, as the Rockets held off MU with clutch work on the offensive glass in the waning minutes, especially from Toledo?s Justin Ingram and Florentino Valencia.
?We did not play hard to start the game, and we got behind,? said Marshall head coach Ron Jirsa. ?Even though we battled back, we were down by such a big margin. They really hit some big shots and got some key offensive rebounds at the end of the game.?
A.W. Hamilton (Georgetown, Ky.) scored a career-high 20 points to lead the Thundering Herd. Enoch Bunch (Nashville, Tenn.) added 16 points, and Mark Patton (Barboursville, W.Va.) tallied 13 points. Anderson and Patton led MU on the glass with five rebounds a piece.
Keith Triplett led Toledo with 22 points, while also adding five assists and two steals in 36 minutes of action. Keonta Howell tallied 17 points, and Florentino Valencia added 15 points for the Rockets.
Marshall returns to action Wednesday night against Akron in the Henderson Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
