Marshall University Athletics
Tulsa Up Next For Marshall Men's Basketball
2/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 22, 2011
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - On Wednesday, the Thundering Herd men's basketball team will be back home to face Tulsa at 7 p.m. inside the Cam Henderson Center. The game is set to be nationally televised on CBS College Sports.
The Thundering Herd won its third-consecutive C-USA game, topping Tulane by a 79-75 margin in overtime on Saturday. DeAndre Kane, who led all players with 20 points, scored the trey that would prove to be the game winner. The wild contest ended with Tulane having a shot to win in regulation following a foul on a missed three-pointer, but converted on two out of three free throws to send the game to the extra period where Kane's three-pointer in overtime made the difference.
Nigel Spikes averaged a double-double over the last two games, which culminated in his second career double-double at Tulane. Spikes tied his career mark with 13 rebounds while scoring 12 points. Earlier in the week against Rice, he scored eight points while hauling in 11 boards. Spikes has also shown great improvement from the free throw line over the last four games. Over that span, Spikes has connected on 10 out of 14, a 71.4% effort.
Since hitting just 14 out of 28 free throws in the game at Southern Miss, Marshall has put together a streak of four straight games hitting 70% of its free throws or higher. Its efforts consist of 85.7% against UAB, 70.4% at East Carolina, 95.8% against Rice and 74.2% in the road victory at Tulane. In total, MU has connected on 71-of-89 free throws, hitting 79.8% of its attempts over the streak.
Tulsa comes to Huntington with a 15-11 mark and a record of 8-4 in Conference USA play. The Golden Hurricane has won six out of its last eight contests, with its two losses each coming by just a point. Tulsa is coming off of a 74-66 win at SMU on February 19.
Justin Hurtt is the top scorer for the Golden Hurricane, averaging 20.1 PPG, tied with Gary Flowers of Southern Miss for the top scoring average in the league. He scored 14 points last time out against SMU, following up a 21-point performance in a win over East Carolina. Steven Idlet averages 12.3 PPG while Scottie Haralson has averaged 11.9.
Tulsa has won seven out of the ten meetings against Marshall. All of the games have been played since both have been members of C-USA. The Golden Hurricane has been dominant as of late, winning five of the last six meetings. The lone win for the Herd over that span was a 64-58 win in Huntington last season. Marshall is 3-1 against Tulsa at the Cam Henderson Center.
On Saturday, Marshall will take on SMU at the Henderson Center before traveling to UTEP for its final road game of the regular season on Wednesday. On March 5, the team will wrap up the regular season at home against UCF.
