Marshall University Athletics
Thundering Herd Opens C-USA Homestand Against UCF
1/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 12, 2007
Marshall GameNotes
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UCF GameNotes
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HUNTINGTON - The Marshall men's basketball team plays its first home Conference USA game of the season when it takes on the UCF Golden Knights Saturday evening at Cam Henderson Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
The Thundering Herd leads the all-time series, 2-0, with both meetings coming in the 2005-06 season. The Herd won 73-69 in Orlando on Jan. 11, 2006, and 73-61 on Feb. 25, 2006, in Huntington.
Marshall (5-10, 0-2) dropped to 0-2 in Conference USA with an 88-64 loss at UTEP Wednesday night in its last time out. Marshall held the lead early in the contest, and held an 18-13 lead at the 11:55 mark. But, UTEP responded with a 23-2 run over the next seven minutes of the contest to put the Miners up for good. Marshall trailed by 20 at the break, 51-31, and never got closer than that in the second half.
For the game, UTEP fired in 47% of its shots and shot 43.5% from three. The Herd shot 31.8% from the floor and only 29.2% from three for the game. Marshall also committed 21 turnovers, which resulted in 30 Miner points. UTEP also out-rebounded the Herd, 46-43, on the night.
Senior guard Tre Whitted (Wilmington, N.C.) led the team in scoring with 20 points, all in the second half, against UTEP. Freshman center Robbie Jackson (Aberdeen, Md.) scored a career-high 12 points to go along with a career-best 8 rebounds, and senior point guard tallied a career high ten points.
Whitted is the team's leading scorer in two conference games at 19.7 points per game, and has come on in the team's last three contests. He has scored 50 points in his last three games at an average of 16.7 points per game, and amazingly enough, all but six of the points have come in the second half. In that time, he is 15-28 from the floor (53.6%) and 12-23 from three (52.2%).
For the season, sophomore forward Markel Humphrey (Ellenwood, Ga.) leads the team in both scoring and rebounding with 13.0 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
UCF enters the game with a 11-4 record and 0-1 in the league after dropping its opener, 74-64, at UAB on January 10. The Golden Knights are the best team in C-USA from three, and is fifth nationally, at 41%. UCF makes 8.4 threes per game, which is 24th in the country. Josh Peppers leads the Golden Knights in scoring at 13.3 points per game.
Tip-off time is set for 7 p.m. in Henderson Center. The game can be heard live regionally on the ISP/Thundering Herd Network and worldwide on www.HerdZone.com. A live stream of the game can also be seen at www.HerdZone.com as part of the Herd All-Access package.
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