Marshall University Athletics
Herd Men to Host Princeton on Saturday at 3 PM
12/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2007
Princeton at Marshall Game Notes 
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall men's basketball team will begin a season-high, four-game homestand on Saturday when it welcomes the Ivy League's Princeton University Tigers to the Cam Henderson Center. Tip-off is at 3 p.m. ET.
Marshall (5-3) is coming off an 85-75 loss at Louisville's Freedom Hall against the Cardinals. Junior guard/forward Markel Humphrey (Atlanta, Ga.) scored a team season-high 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting with four 3-point field goals, tying a career-high. Humphrey added 10 rebounds for his second double-double of 2007-08, with six offensive rebounds.
The Thundering Herd will take on Princeton (2-8), currently on an eight-game losing skid, in the first of four straight afternoon home games at the Henderson Center. MU has won six straight at home and nine of its last 10 on its home floor.
The Tigers, who have had the same starting lineup in each of their 10 games, average 53.9 points per game and surrender 63.7 per contest. Princeton shoots 40.9 percent from the floor while holding its opposition to 48.0 percent.
Princeton sophomore center Zach Finley paces the Tigers in scoring with 11.9 points per game and pulls down a team-high 5.6 rebounds per game. Fellow sophomore Lincoln Gunn plays a team-high 34.2 minutes per game and is second behind Finley in scoring with 10.3 ppg. Gunn is also a legitimate playmaker, dishing out a team-best 3.1 assists per contest.
Princeton converted 54 percent of its shots in its last outing, Dec. 16 versus Manhattan, its first game above the 50 percent mark in its last 30 games.
Humphrey's team-high 16.1 points per game is backed by two other double-digit scorers, Mark Dorris (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Tirrell Baines (Laurens, S.C.). Dorris (13.8 ppg) netted 21 points versus Louisville and also sank four 3-point field goals. Baines (13.1 ppg), a freshman, is shooting 50.7 percent from the floor and is tied with Humphrey for the team lead in rebounding (5.9 rpg).
Marshall and Princeton will meet for the third time in history as the all-time series is knotted at 1-1. The Tigers dealt the Thundering Herd a 61-45 loss last season at Jadwin Gym in Princeton, N.J., to even the series. Princeton traveled to Huntington in 1972 for the Marshall Memorial Invitational and fell to the Herd in the tournament's championship game.
The game will be video streamed live on Herd All-Access, via HerdZone.com, and can be heard on the Thundering Herd/ISP Sports Network.
