Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Cleveland State
Women's Basketball Takes Dominant 75-61 Win Over Cleveland State
12/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2009
CLEVELAND - Four Marshall players finished in double figures as the Thundering Herd women's basketball team grabbed a dominating 75-61 win over Cleveland State Wednesday evening at the Wolstein Center.
Alyssa Hammond led the Herd (3-4) with 21 points while Chantelle Handy notched 17. Tynikki Crook finished with 16 as Mystee Dale chipped in a career-best 13. It marked her third-consecutive double-digit outing.
The Vikings (2-4) were paced by Angel Roque, who led the Vikings with 16 points. Roque hit 5-of-9 three-point attempts. Stephanie Crosley and Kailey Klein notched 14 apiece.
Marshall opened the game up by scoring the first six points over the first 2:10. The lead would make its way to nine points, 11-2, just over two minutes later. Alyssa Hammond was strong in the early going, scoring five points and grabbing three boards over the course of the first five minutes.
After hitting four of its first six shots to start the game, the Herd cooled off, hitting one of its next seven as the Cleveland State offense hit its groove, cutting the lead to three, 13-10. Angel Roque drained a pair of threes in the run to cut into the lead.
The Herd came right back, taking advantage of nine CSU turnovers in the first 11 minutes to push the lead to 12 points, 24-12, with 6:47 remaining in the opening period. Chantelle Handy hit a three while Hammond capped off the run with her fourth bucket of the game.
Two more Handy field goals wrapped up the half for Marshall, who took a 36-25 lead into the locker room. Tynikki Crook led all players with ten points and eight rebounds in the first half.
Led by junior Mystee Dale, the Herd came out on fire in the second half, hitting six of its first eight field goal attempts to push its lead to 20, 49-29. After Crook scored the first bucket of the period, Dale recorded the next nine Herd points while Handy finished off the run with a fast break bucket. A trey by Angel Roque of CSU ended the 13-4 run MU run.
Cleveland State would cut the lead to 17 on the Roque trey, but it was all Herd from there. Marshall would see its lead grow to as many as 26 before settling for the 75-61 win.
Marshall led in almost every category in the win, outrebounding the Vikings, 43-29 and outshooting them by an .571-.317 margin.
The post players also made a huge difference. The Herd scored 56 points in the paint while holding the Vikings to just 20. The top three post players for MU, Crook, Hammond and Handy, combined for 54 points. Crook led all players with 14 rebounds, 11 coming on the defensive end. It marked her second double-double of the season.
MU did a solid job of dishing the ball off, tallying a season-high 27 assists. Six Herd players finished with at least three helpers.
The women have six days off until they face George Washington on Tuesday, December 8 at 7 p.m. From there, they will travel to Morehead State to face the Eagles on December 18 before returning home two days later to host Tennessee-Martin at 4 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader with the Marshall men's team.
