Marshall University Athletics
Herd Men Charge to Houston for Showdown with Cougars
1/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2008
Marshall at Houston Game Notes 
HOUSTON - Donnie Jones' Marshall University men's basketball team returns to Houston for the second time in 18 days, this time to face the Conference USA third-place UH Cougars on Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST.
Marshall (10-7, 2-2 C-USA) stepped out of conference play in its last contest, dropping a 66-64 decision to intra-state rival West Virginia on Wednesday in Charleston, W.Va. After a valiant comeback that saw the Thundering Herd erase a 12-point deficit with 8:30 remaining, the Mountaineers hit a jumper with 5.6 seconds left to escape with their second straight Capital Classic title.
Markel Humphrey (Atlanta, Ga.), who missed his second straight game with a stress fracture in his foot, will be a game-time decision for Saturday's game against the Cougars (14-3, 3-0). Guards Mark Dorris (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Darryl Merthie (Lake Mary, Fla.) stepped up their point production in the absence of their leading scorer, pumping in 20 points apiece versus WVU. Merthie netted 15 of his 20 points after halftime, including three free throws with 31 second left to knot the game at 64-64.
Dorris also added a team-high 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and second of his career.
Marshall and Houston will square off for just the fourth time when the two schools clash on Saturday night. The Cougars have won every game of the series, including the first meeting when No. 1 Houston defeated Marshall 102-93 on Feb. 1, 1968, at Madison Square Garden. As Conference USA foes, UH upended MU twice by double digits.
Houston coach Tom Penders is on the cusp of joining en elite group of coaches with 600 career victories, currently holding 598 wins. Penders is in his fourth season on the Houston bench and posted more than 200 of his wins as head coach at Texas from 1989-98, where he took the Longhorns to eight NCAA Tournaments with an Elite Eight berth.
Like Marshall, Houston has played 11 games on its home floor entering Saturday's contest. The Cougars are 10-1 at Hofheinz Pavilion, losing only to Arizona on Jan. 12, although two of their first three C-USA victories have come on the road. Houston defeated cross-town rival Rice on Wednesday 69-60 despite shooting only 32.8 percent from the floor, including 17.2 percent from 3-point range (5-for-29).
Senior guard Robert McKiver scores a team-high 19.9 points per game, good enough for fourth best in C-USA. He netted a game-high 18 points against the Owls on Wednesday, but went 4-for-16 from the floor. McKiver grabs 4.2 rebounds per game, fourth behind fellow upper-classmen Dion Dowell (7.8 rpg - 4th in C-USA), Tafari Toney (5.9 rpg - 15th in C-USA) and Marcus Cousin (5.0).
Houston is the best free-throw shooting team in the league, sinking 75.4 percent of its charity stripe tosses. Three of UH's five seniors rank 1-2-3 in C-USA in the category with Dowell (91.9 percent), Lanny Smith (86 percent) and McKiver (85.3 percent) leading the way.
UH scores 79.1 ppg, second in C-USA, and ranks seventh in points surrendered (67.2 ppg). Marshall is scoring 68.1 ppg (8th) and allows 64.4 ppg (4th).
In Marshall's lone trip to Hofheinz Pavilion, on Jan. 28, 2006, the Herd shot 39 percent and was out-rebounded 23-7 in the second half of the Cougars' 69-56 win. Humphrey and Dorris, starters in that game, combined for 14 points and nine rebounds. The then freshman Humphrey went 4-for-5 from the floor in 35 minutes. In last season's rematch in Huntington on Jan. 27, Dorris scored a game-high 21 points, going 6-for-15 from the field while Humphrey went 5-for-10 for 15 points. MU was again held to under 40 percent shooting as a team, sinking just 32.8 percent of its attempts in UH's 16-point win. Tyler Wilkerson (Lexington, Ky.) made his first and only start of the season and pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds.
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 with Steve Cotton (PxP) and Woody Woodrum (color).
