Marshall University Athletics
Men's Basketball Begins Season Against Evansville
11/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2005
Marshall GameNotes
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Evansville GameNotes
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EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Seven new Marshall players will get their first taste of regular season Division I basketball when the 2005-06 Marshall men's basketball season gets underway Friday evening against the Evansville Purple Aces at Roberts Stadium. The game tips off at approximately 7:20 p.m. central time, or 30 minutes after a Purple Aces women's game, which begins at 5 p.m.
The Herd, which finished the 2004-05 season at 6-22, will look to the aforementioned newcomers and a group of steady veterans, which include seniors Mark Patton (Barboursville, W.Va.) and LaVar Carter (Louisville, Ky.), and junior Tre Whitted (Wilmington, N.C.), to reverse its fortunes. Marshall returns two starters, Patton and Whitted, and six letterwinners overall which accounted for 51.3% of the Herd's scoring and 61.9% of Marshall's rebounding in 2004-05. Freshmen Mason Wooldridge (New Canton, Va.), Markel Humphrey (Ellenwood, Ga.), and Jesse Oglesby (Lithonia, Ga.), sophomore Mark Dorris (Cincinnati, Ohio), and juniors Chris Ross (San Antonio, Texas) and Travis Aikens (Orlando, Fla.) will all get a chance to contribute in their first regular season game in the Green and White. Another newcomer, redshirt sophomore Jean Francois Bro Grebe (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) will be out until midseason recovering from ACL surgery. Marshall will face off against the Purple Aces for the first time since the 1951-52, when the Thundering Herd defeated the Purple Aces, 78-72, in Evansville. MU won a home-and-home series with Evansville that season, also defeating the Purple Aces 88-78 in Huntington. Ironically, both teams will renew the home-and-home series in 2005-06; Evansville comes to Huntington on November 26. Marshall holds a 4-3 lead in the overall series, and the Herd is 12-14 all-time against the Missouri Valley Conference, with its last game coming at Illinois State last season in a 79-67 loss.
Evansville ended the preseason at 2-0 with wins over DePauw (76-67) and Oakland City University (73-67), and ended the 2004-05 season with an 11-17 mark, although the Purple Aces finished the year with an impressive 10-5 home record. Junior forward Bradley Strickland led Evansville in the preseason, averaging 15.5 points per contest, while returning leading scorer Matt Webster averaged 9.5 points in the preseason. Newcomer Jason Holsinger also poured in 13.5 points per game during the preseason.
The Thundering Herd ended its exhibition game slate with a 104-62 win over Division II Glenville State at the Henderson Center on November 12. Junior forward Travis Aikens led the way for Marshall with 24 points and nine rebounds, with four other players, Joe Miles (12), Tre Whitted (11), Markel Humphrey (11), and Mark Dorris (10) adding double figures for the Thundering Herd. For the game, MU shot 53.3% from the floor and 45.8% from beyond-the-arc.
In Marshall's first two exhibition games of the season, there were seven different players that scored in double digits. Travis Aikens and Mark Dorris accomplished the feat in both games, with Mark Patton and Chris Ross scoring 10 or more in game one and Tre Whitted, Markel Humphrey, and Joe Miles joining the double-digit party in game two.
The game can be heard live on the ISP/Thundering Herd Radio Network throughout the region and on www.HerdZone.com, with Steve Cotton and Woody Woodrum calling the action.
