Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
SMU
Marshall Rallies For 64-62 Win Over SMU
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2011
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Damier Pitts scored 19 points as the Thundering Herd rallied for a 64-62 win over SMU in Conference USA action Saturday night inside the Cam Henderson Center.
The win marked the fifth in a row for Marshall (20-9, 8-6 C-USA), the longest streak in the league. It also marked the 100th career victory for Marshall head coach Tom Herrion, who went 80-38 in his time with the College of Charleston before posting 20 wins this season at Marshall.
"It was excellent win, what a great turnout by our fans," Herrion said. "It was a tremendous turnout and a great environment tonight. What an excellent college basketball game. Give them a lot of credit. It was exactly what I thought. Don't mistake where they are in the standings and what their overall record is."
"Tonight we got the win by grinding it out and finding a way. Our defense was much better in the second half. I thought Shaquille Johnson was a big factor in the game. He was tremendous, not on the stat sheet, but for what he did. I also thought our press was fantastic as well."
SMU, one of the top ten shooting teams in the nation, opened the game hitting nine of their first 11 shots en route to a 21-20 lead 11 minutes in. Marshall kept right up with the hot-shooting Mustangs, hitting eight out of its first 11 shots over the same span. DeAndre Kane, who scored a team-high 10 points in the first half, hit a pair of treys in the opening minutes.
Defense was the story over the remaining nine minutes of the period as SMU finished 4-of-11 and the Herd hit just three of its final 13 shot attempts in the half before the Mustangs would take a 29-26 lead into the halftime break.
Coming out of the half, Tirrell Baines hit a pair of shot jumpers to give MU its first lead since early in the first stanza, 30-29. After forcing SMU into its sixth turnover, Johnny Thomas hit a layup with 17:35 remaining to give the Herd its largest lead of the game,32-29.
SMU took a timeout and coming out of it, put up a 10-2 run, started by a Jeremiah Samarrippas three-pointer, to jump back on top by a 39-34 margin, the largest lead for the Mustangs.
With SMU up by six points, 44-38, Marshall made a game-changing 10-2 rally to retake the lead. A Damier Pitts three-pointer capped off the run to put MU on to with just under eight minutes left in the game.
A layup by Johnny Thomas with four minutes left gave the Herd the largest advantage either team would enjoy all night, 56-48, but SMU made one last push. The Mustangs put up five-straight points to get within a possession, 56-53, with 1:17 left in the contest.
After SMU closed the gap to three points on two occasions in the final minute, Pitts knocked down a pair of free throws with nine seconds left to reestablish MU's five-point advantage. On the ensuing play, Robert Nyakundi hit a trey with seven seconds left to make it a two-point game.
Pitts was clutch from the line, hitting a pair of free throws with four seconds left to give the Herd a 64-60 lead. SMU hit a pair of free throws in the final seconds to make it the final of 64-62.
Pitts hit 6-of-15 shots in the game, including three treys. He was a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line in the final seconds to seal the win. Kane finished the night with 13 points while Baines recorded 12. Dia led all players with 21 points and 12 boards. Marshall finished with a 27-22 rebounding advantage while SMU enjoyed a 55.8%-46.0% shooting advantage.
The win marked the 20th of the season. After winning 24 last season, the Herd has reached the mark for two consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons.
Just two more games remain in the regular season for MU. The team will travel to El Paso, Texas to face UTEP on Wednesday at 9:05 ET before coming on back home Saturday to wrap up the season against UCF. It will mark Senior Night for the team; Orlando Allen and Tirrell Baines will be honored prior to the game.
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