Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Tulane
Herd Outlasts Tulane, 79-75, In Overtime
2/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2011
NEW ORLEANS, La. - DeAndre Kane scored a game-high 20 points, including the winning basket, to give the Marshall University men's basketball team a 79-75 overtime victory over Tulane on Saturday evening at Fogelman Arena.
Kane hit a three with 42 seconds left in overtime and connected on a pair of late free throws to lift Marshall (18-9, 6-6 C-USA) to its third-straight win.
"Our kids played so hard over 45 minutes, obviously the end of regulation was not the way we wanted things to go, but our kids never quit believing that they would win the game," head coach Tom Herrion said. "We were in major foul trouble with key guys, but our guys kept grinding it out and finding a way."
Marshall got off to a quick start, opening up a 5-0 lead just a minute into the game as Tirrell Baines hit a jumper and DeAndre Kane knocked down a three. The lead quickly reached ten points, 13-3, as Baines scored his second bucket just over four minutes in.
Tulane (12-14, 2-11 C-USA) came back to make it a six-point game, 15-9, before the Herd reestablished its ten-point advantage on several occasions. With MU up 33-23 with four minutes left, the Green Wave wrapped up the half on an 8-3 run to find itself down 36-31 at the half. Tulane did a good amount of its damage from the three-point line with treys accounting for 12 of their first 19 points.
The Green Wave kept their momentum going early in the second half, as a three-pointer by Kris Richard four minutes in got Tulane within a possession, 42-39. Two minutes later, Richard got Tulane within a point after knocking down his third trey of the contest.
With six minutes remaining, David Booker hit his fourth bucket of the half to tie the game up at 58-58, the first tie since the opening tip.
Marshall would jump back in front by as many as four points in the final minutes, but things got interesting in the last ten seconds. With MU up 69-68, Damier Pitts connected on a pair of free throws with six seconds left. After fouling Trent Rogers on the ensuing play, he made the first free throw before intentionally missing the second.
The Herd grabbed the rebound, but traveled on the play giving Tulane the ball with three seconds left. On the inbound, Rogers was fouled with .03 seconds left on a three. He made two to send the game into an extra period.
Kendall Timmons hit a free throw in the opening minute to give the Green Wave their first advantage of the game, 72-71. With two minutes left in overtime, David Booker grabbed a rebound on a missed TU free throw and hit a layup to give the Green Wave a 74-71 edge.
Marshall found itself down 75-73 in the final minute, but with 42 seconds remaining a DeAndre Kane three-pointer gave Marshall its first overtime lead. With three seconds left in the extra time, he hit a pair of free throws to seal the 79-75 win.
Kane led all players with 20 points while grabbing eight boards. Nigel Spikes notched his second double-double of the year, scoring 12 points to go along 13 rebounds, tying his career best. Tirrell Baines chipped in 14 points.
The Green Wave was led by Kendall Timmons, who recorded 15 points. David Booker finished with 14 while Kris Richard had 12.
The Herd finished Saturdays contest with a 42-30 advantage on the boards, but the biggest disparity came in free throw shooting. Marshall hit 74.2% of their shots from the charity stripe while Tulane hit just 17 out of 31 attempts.
This week, the Herd returns home for a pair of games, beginning Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Tulsa. Next Saturday, SMU comes to Huntington for a 7 p.m. game at the Cam Henderson Center. Wednesday's game against Tulsa will be nationally televised by CBS College Sports.
