Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
East Carolina
Marshall Defeats East Carolina 83-65
1/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2010
GREENVILLE, N.C.--Marshall University (13-2, 2-0 C-USA) defeated East Carolina 83-65 (6-10, 0-2 C-USA) in league men's basketball action Jan. 9 in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. With the victory, the Thundering Herd are 2-0 in Conference USA play for the first time since joining the league in 2005 and are 2-0 in conference play since the 2003-04 season when MU went 2-0 in the Mid-American Conference..
The Herd took a 10-7 lead into the first media timeout as Damier Pitts sank a pair of three's while Hassan Whiteside posted a pair of field goals. The Herd came out of the media timeout on a 6-2 run. Brock Young ended the spurt with a layup to make it 16-11. With the score 16-13, Cam Miller hit back-to-back three-pointers to extend the MU advantage to nine. Marshall used Pitts' third three-pointer of the night to push the lead to 28-15 as the third media timeout occurred at the 7:35 mark.
Brock Young paced a Pirates' 8-2 spurt that got East Carolina to within seven, 34-27 with 1:39 to go, but Dago Pena's three pushed lead back into double digits. Miller's third three of the half made it 40-29, but Jontae Sherrod's three-pointer at the buzzer made it 40-32 heading into recess.
Chris Lutz scored eight of the first 10 Marshall points of the second half, edging Young who charted five of the first eight for the Pirates. The Herd and Pirates exchanged baskets, keeping the MU advantage between 10 and 11 points through the next two timeouts on the floor. A Shaquille Johnson three-point play with 3:11 remaining gave the Herd its biggest lead of the game, 75-59. Four Young free throws got it down to 12 in the final three minutes, but that would be as close as East Carolina would get.
Pitts led the Herd with 17 points. The 5-10 point guard tied his career high with five rebounds. Lutz scored a season high 13 points while Hassan Whiteside and Tyler Wilkerson each posted 10 points. Whiteside, the Division I leader in blocks, rejected five shots. Wilkerson led MU with eight rebounds. Young led all scorers with 26 points.
"It was great team effort at a difficult place to play," said Marshall head coach Donnie Jones. "Our team has bought into the team concept and sharing the basketball. East Carolina did a nice job playing interior defense. It was our night shooting from the outside."
"We won with our defense tonight," Pitts said. "We did a great job of wearing them down. My teammates put me in a position where I could knock down some shots."
At 13-2, Marshall matches its best start since the start of the 1999-00 season when the Thundering Herd were also 13-2 (Marshall finished that year 21-9). MU heads to Orlando, Fla. Wednesday night when the Herd travel to UCF. The game is scheduled for a 8 p.m. start and will be televised nationally on CBS College Sports.
NOTES: Antonio Haymon sat out due to abdominal infection...Haymon will be listed as day-to-day...Dago Pena made his first start of the season in place of Shaquille Johnson...The insertion of Pena marked the fifth different starting lineup used this season by the Thundering Herd...Marshall forced two ECU shot clock violations in the first half.
