Marshall University Athletics
MU Women Win Ninth Straight With Sweep of Ohio
2/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MU Women Win Ninth Straight With Sweep of Ohio
2/9/2005
- Box Score
ATHENS, Ohio ? Junior Sikeetha Shepard-Hall (Houston, Texas) scored a game- and career-high 30 points to lead the Marshall women?s basketball team past Ohio, 72-63, Wednesday at the Convocation Center. The win gave the Thundering Herd (14-7, 8-2 Mid-American Conference) its ninth straight victory, the school?s longest win streak since the 1973-74 season.
Shepard-Hall went 9-of-16 from the floor, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range, to give first place Marshall its eighth consecutive league win. The eight wins tie last season?s school record for MAC wins in one season.
Marshall led by 11 points, 48-37, at the 9:06 mark of the second half, but the Bobcats (9-12, 5-5 MAC) went on a 15-6 run to close to within two points with 3:49 left. Marshall responded with eight straight points, five from Shepard-Hall, to regain a double-digit lead and end Ohio?s upset hopes.
Ohio was outscored 28-18 in the paint, aided by 13 points from Marshall sophomore center Modupe Ishola (Washington, D.C.), who added three rebounds. Senior guard Kim Griffin (Valdosta, Ga.) and sophomore forward KaShawna Curry (Huntington, W.Va.) each grabbed a team-high six rebounds. Curry followed up her career-high four-block effort at Miami (Ohio) with two against the Bobcats and Griffin tied her career-high with five steals.
Ohio lost a conference game at home for the first time this season (4-1). The Bobcats got another solid set of performances from freshmen guards Quintana Ward (16 points) and Simone Redd (13). Ward dished out four assists while Redd pulled down five rebounds and went 3-of-4 from downtown.
Marshall?s No. 1-ranked offense in the MAC (71.6 points per game) was held in check the first half (36.1 percent shooting), but broke out in the second stanza to go 13-of-22 from the floor (59.1 percent). Ohio, whose 70.4 points per game ranked third in the MAC, finished the game shooting 37.5 percent.
?Our offense was flat for the first time in five to six games,? Marshall head coach Royce Chadwick said. ?But their defense had a lot do with that.
?This was a game between two really good offensive basketball teams, but sometimes the offense goes away and you?ve got to step up and play defense.?
The two high-powered offenses struggled to find the basket early, as Ohio led 13-7 with nearly nine minutes gone in the first half. That all changed for the Herd when junior guard Reshundra Smiley (Modesto, Calif.) found Ishola in the paint for an easy layup while drawing a Redd foul. Ishola missed the free throw, but the field goal kick-started an 11-0 run for Marshall, fueled by seven points by Shepard-Hall. The run kept Ohio scoreless for over four minutes
Shepard-Hall hit her 100th career 3-pointer, only the fifth Marshall player to do so, en route to scoring 13 first-half points. Marshall led 32-20 at halftime after more than doubling Ohio?s field goal total in the frame, 13-6.
Chadwick was pleased with his leading scorer?s effort on Wednesday.
?She (Shepard-Hall) is very patient and gets a lot of continuity on offense by getting the ball where it needs to be when she doesn?t have the shot,? he said.
Recording her first career 30-point game and winning nine straight games hasn?t clouded Shepard-Hall?s focus on the Herd?s objective this season.
?This win (ninth straight) doesn?t feel any different than the first,? Shepard-Hall said. ?We just want to continue to get better so we can peak in March.?
Marshall?s win was its fourth straight over Ohio.
Marshall will host the MAC Game of the Week on Sunday when the Ball State Cardinals visit the Cam Henderson Center in front of a Fox Sports Net regional audience. Tip-off with the West Division?s third place team is at 12 noon.
Notes: Junior guard Mary Pat Statler (New Cumberland, W.Va.) scored five points to put her over 500 for her career. Only in her second season with the Herd, Statler played her freshman campaign at the Big East?s St. John?s University?Sophomore forward Crystal Champion (Washington, D.C.), the MAC?s leading rebounder with 8.8 per game, pulled down five rebounds at Ohio, her lowest total since grabbing five versus Fla. International on Dec. 18?Ohio became the second team to drop four straight to Marshall since the Herd joined the MAC in 1997, joining Central Michigan who is on a current five-game slide to MU?Shepard-Hall?s 30 points moved her past former Herd star Tamira Higgins (1991-95) into 14th place on the Marshall all-time scoring list with 1,037 points.
