Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Old Dominion
Men's Basketball Defeats Old Dominion, 68-64
11/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2008
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall University men's basketball team snapped a three-game losing streak in outlasting Old Dominion for a 68-64 non-conference victory at the Cam Henderson Center on Saturday.
The Thundering Herd (2-3) rebounded from its winless trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., with a thrilling four-point win against a spirited Old Dominion team from the Colonial Athletic Association. Marshall grabbed a six-point lead at intermission and held a 10-point edge, 45-35, with 15:37 left in the second half, but the Monarchs (1-3) quickly erased their deficit with a 10-0 run in under two minutes of game time.
The teams went blow-for-blow after ODU tied the game at 45 apiece with 13:03 remaining. Although Marshall never trailed in the second half, it could not fully separate from the Monarchs the remainder of the game in a classic, tight battle down the stretch. Down five points, ODU got a terrific reverse lay-in, plus a foul, from redshirt freshman guard Kent Bazemore to put the Monarchs down 55-53 following the converted free throw.
After struggling through a 0-for-4 first half, Herd guard/forward Markel Humphrey (Atlanta, Ga.) went 3-for-3 after halftime, including a jumper and 3-pointer in a two-and-a-half-minute span that answered ODU points. The first put MU up four points, 57-53, after Bazemore's acrobatics and the 3-pointer followed a Frank Hassel putback to bump MU's lead to five points, 63-58, with just 2:52 remaining.
In between Humphrey's late field goals, ODU's Kayon Carter and MU guard Shaquille Johnson (Jacksonville, Fla.) traded 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions just 17 seconds apart. The Johnson trey, one of two on the day for the freshman, came off a nice feed from inside from Herd forward Tyler Wilkerson (Lexington, Ky.).
Humphrey's second-half surge (8 pts, 2 assists, block) seemed to spark Johnson, who continues to impress in late-game situations. The two-time Florida Class 5A Player of the Year played as few college rookies do, seemingly taking over the game in the last three minutes. Johnson collected two steals at critical moments in crunch time, including one with 35 seconds left and MU up just three points.
The change of possession forced ODU to foul several times to get into the bonus, where Humphrey sank the front end of a one-and-one opportunity at the free-throw line. ODU sophomore guard Darius James sank a jumper with 26 seconds left to pull the Monarchs to within two points, 64-62. MU's Octavius Spann (College Park, Ga.) missed his front end free throw, giving ODU the opportunity to take the lead with a 3-pointer, which Ben Finney attempted but it came up short of the rim - his only miss from beyond the arc in the game (4-5 3-pt FG).
Johnson collected his lone rebound of the game on Finney's misfire and was quickly fouled by James. Johnson nailed both of his free throws with 13 seconds left to put the Herd up 66-62. ODU center Gerald Lee answered with a layup with five seconds remaining, but two Tirrell Baines (Laurens, S.C.) free throws iced the game to give Marshall the decisive 68-64 decision.
"It's great to win a game after the long Florida trip, which really helped our ball club tonight," Marshall head coach Donnie Jones said. "I'm as proud of this win as any win that I've been apart of since I've been here, just because of the adversity this basketball team went through this past week, how they came back and practiced and how they came out and found a way against a really good basketball team in Old Dominion to get a victory.
"I don't know if we win tonight if we didn't go through what we did last weekend (in Daytona)."
Baines led Marshall in scoring with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting and added a game-high nine rebounds, an assist and a block. Six of Baines' nine boards were off the offensive glass, helping MU to a 12-4 advantage in offensive rebounds and a 12-3 edge in second-chance points. Herd sophomore center Marcus Goode (Chapin, S.C.) enjoyed his second straight productive game off the bench, scoring 11 points (5-7 FG) with eight rebounds, a block, a steal and an assist in 17 minutes.
Johnson netted 10 points to start his career with double-digit point outputs in his first five collegiate contests. Fellow freshman Damier Pitts (Charlotte, N.C.) joined senior Darryl Merthie (Sanford, Fla.) in the starting lineup and the Herd point guards combined for 14 assists to just two turnovers (7 assists, 1 turnover apiece). In all, the Herd dished out 23 helpers on the afternoon.
Lee, nephew of Marshall Hall of Fame basketball player Russell Lee (1969-72), scored 10 points for ODU with two rebounds, well below his season averages of 16.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Early foul trouble limited the 6-foot-9 All-CAA center to just six first-half minutes.
Finney recorded a game-high 16 points with five rebounds and four assists off the bench for ODU and James netted 11 points (5-8 FG) with four boards.
Marshall sank 58.3 percent of its field goal attempts in the second half (14-for-24) while ODU was even more lethal from the floor at 68 percent (17-for-25) after halftime.
"After Daytona, we had to come back and grind hard in practice," Johnson said. "We started correcting the things we didn't do right in Daytona. We're trying to not look back at that weekend and just going forward."
Marshall was without the services of guard Chris Lutz (Bedford, N.H.) and guard/forward Dago Pena (Punta Gorda, Fla.) due to injuries and Wilkerson, normally a starter, came off the bench and played just 16 minutes after battling the flu.
The Herd will get a short rest before its next outing, Tuesday at home versus former Southern Conference rival East Tennessee State.
