Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Kent State
Women's Basketball Takes 93-55 Win in Season Debut
11/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 11, 2011
HUNTINGTON, W.VA. - Marshall women's basketball opened up the 2011-12 season on Friday night against Kent State and swept past the Flashes 93-55. The performance was the most productive offensive effort since December 18, 2007, when Marshall beat UT-Arlington 97-91 in triple overtime.
Head Coach Royce Chadwick and his team mark a 1-0 record after the season debut and Kent State starts the year 0-1.
The offensive production was led by Shynisha Johnson and Jasmine Shaw, who both totaled 16 points in the game. Lateidra Elliott added 10 points and led the team in assists with three. Leandra King posted a team leading eight rebounds, with five of the boards being offensive.
Chadwick showed the consistency of talent he has throughout his team as the Marshall bench scored 62 of the 93 points.
"We had some people come off the bench and give us a shot-in-the-arm offensively and made a difference for us on the offensive end," added Chadwick after the game.
The Marshall defense was also a main contributor in the victory. The Herd had 18 steals compared to Kent State's six and 37 of Marshall's points were scored off of Kent State turnovers. Marshall forced the Flashes to turn the ball over 36 times, while the Herd was efficient in keeping the ball safe after only turning the ball over 17 times.
"We did a really good job defensively and we also did a good job in the opening minutes of the game trying to establish ourselves," commented Chadwick on the defensive effort. "We were playing help-side and everybody was rotating. We were able to get some baskets off of our defense, which elevated our confidence and allowed us to get more and more confident as we went through the first half. We earned most of that through our defensive pressure and our defensive intensity."
The first half started tied 5-5 in the opening minutes, but Marshall took over the game and began to build a substantial lead over Kent State with the help of Johnson totaling 12 points and Shaw having 10 in the opening 20 minutes.
A 63.6 percent three point percentage also helped Marshall grab a 57 first half score. Johnson made three from beyond the arc and Shay Weaver had two. The Herd defense on the other hand only allowed Kent State to make one three-pointer in the first half and forced the Flash to go into the locker room with 24 points.
Marshall continued to dominate in the second half even with a steady rotation of players coming in from the bench. Chadwick had a total of 15 players earn minutes in the game, while 13 players added points to the scoreboard.
The Marshall defense limited Kent State to a 34 percent field goal percentage and forced the Flash to turn the ball over 15 times. In the second half, the Herd combined for 10 steals, with Alaya Mitchell and Shay Weaver leading the team during the period with two steals each.
After the final buzzer, Marshall walked away with their first win of the season with a 93-55 finish. The last time Marshall scored more than 93 in a game that didn't reach overtime was January 1, 2007 when Marshall knocked off Southern Miss 96-83.
"We are extremely excited at where our team fits at this point," noted Chadwick after the game. "We have a lot of improvement that we can make. It was a really exciting locker room, though. We were peeling coaches off the ceiling, as well as players. I know there are a lot of things we can do in the future. If we all accept our role, we are going to have a very good basketball team."
Marshall women's basketball will return to the Cam Henderson Center for their next game on November 16 against Miami (OH). The match-up is set to tip off at 7:00 p.m.
