Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Troy
Marshall Defeats Troy, 99-70
12/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 12, 2009
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.-
Senior forward Tyler Wilkerson led five Marshall players in double figures as the Thundering Herd (7-1) defeated Troy University (5-4) 99-70 Dec. 12 in the Cam Henderson Center. Wilkerson paced the Herd as he scored 19 points. The 6-8 Lexington, Ky. native shot 8-for-12 from the floor, added five rebounds and blocked two shots.
Marshall connected on eight of its first 11 shots to jump out to a 26-9 advantage over the Trojans. The Herd continued the fine shooting, going 20-of-37 in the first half (54.1%) and took a 56-31 lead into the break. MU had 13 assists in the first half and no turnovers. A brief Troy spurt early in the second half got the Marshall lead down to 61-44 just before the first media timeout of the closing frame. The Thundering Herd responded with another run, 16-5, that pushed the lead to 28, 77-49. The Trojans would get no closer than 27 in the second half with the Herd taking its biggest lead of the game, 33, on a Wilkerson jumper at the 4:440 mark.
MU shot 50.7% for the game (35-of-69) and for the second time in the past three games, Marshall made 13 three-pointers in a game. The Thundering Herd made 50% of their three-point attempts (13-of-26). Marshall point guard Damier Pitts (So., Charlotte, N.C.) made 4-of-5 three-pointers as he scored a season high 16 points. Pitts also dished out seven assists and grabbed four rebounds. Tirrell Baines (Jr., Laurens, S.C.) was 4-of-5 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line for 15 points. Shaquille Johnson (So., Jacksonville, Fla.) went 5-of-7 from the field for 13 points. Johnson charted five assists. Hassan Whiteside (Fr., Gastonia, N.C.) posted his third triple-double of the year as he scored 11 points and nabbed 12 rebounds. Whiteside blocked five shots, one more than the entire Troy squad.
"I am very proud of our basketball team tonight," said Marshall head coach Donnie Jones. "We always talk about our keys to winning: one is rebounding, defend, play hard, and play unselfish. Tonight we did. I thought we played great defense against a team that is one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country. We did a great job in the press to make them work and take some time off the clock. We didn't cause as many turnovers as you would want to in the press, but it was effective in the aspect of wearing them down and taking them out of their rhythm. I thought our team did a good job not only from our starters, but from our bench. I was very proud of our bench tonight. They gave us a lift again, and I think this team builds off each game. That's what we want to do. We are nowhere near where we need to be and we can't settle because we still have those lulls coming out of the locker room which was my concern coming out. But it is good to be able to sub guys and bring them in and out if they don't come out with the right energy. I am proud of having 26 assists tonight. I thought that was important to us tonight, and just committing six turnovers. We continue to share the basketball and play as a team, and tonight we made shots. We knocked down three's tonight which was important against their zone."
"We have guys in spots, and we are selling roles to people on this team," Jones continued. "We see what we can do from a team stand point. It's fun to play this way, going up and down the court, sharing the basketball, press, run and play. That is what Herd basketball is all about. That is our identity, and we sell our identity every day. I think those guys do it practice.. If you watch our practice, the guys go up and down, we compete. There is a winner and a loser in everything we do. I think that has helped our guys go out and play together and compete on every possession."
"In the first half we executed well," Pitts said. "The coaches wanted to keep us in a good flow, they wanted us to make the extra pass and play unselfish, and we had a good flow going. We had a rhythm going so there wasn't much they could do to disrupt it."
" We came out with a lot of energy today," Wilkerson said. "We had a good week of practice and turned it into the game. They have been asking if we could come with the same energy against a better opponent, as opposed to Salem. They were a good team that had just come off some pretty good wins, but we came out ready to play and jumped out on them real quick. The first five minutes of the second half we have been messing up since the beginning of the season. We have been losing the first five minutes of the second half, so we tried to work on that tonight and stay focused. When you go into halftime with a big lead guys tend to relax. We have to focus on that in practice of playing a full 40 minutes, and I think we did that tonight."
The win marked the fifth in a row for the Thundering Herd, the longest winning streak for the program since the 2001-02 season. Marshall is back in action Wednesday night when the Herd host NAIA Division I Brescia University (Ky.). Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
