Marshall University Athletics
Herd Men Set For Final Regular Season Road Trip
3/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2011
EL PASO, Texas - The Marshall University men's basketball team will travel to El Paso, Texas to face UTEP in its final road game of the regular season at 9:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening.
The Herd won its fifth-straight game on Saturday taking a 64-62 decision over SMU. The nip and tuck affair saw the lead change five times before Marshall established control in the final eight minutes, leading by as many as eight points before settling for the 2-point victory. Damier Pitts recorded his second-straight 19-point game while DeAndre Kane chipped in 13 points.
Marshall begins play this week on a five-game C-USA win streak. It marks just the second five-game C-USA win streak for MU since entering the league. The longest win streak against league opponents in C-USA came last year when MU won six-consecutive C-USA contests. The streak also marks just the third five-game conference streak since Marshall entered the Mid-American Conference in 1997. The longest conference win streak for MU in the MAC was a five-game streak in February of 1999.
Head coach Tom Herrion notched the 100th win of his career in Marshall's 64-62 win over SMU on February 26. Following an 80-38 stint with the College of Charleston, Herrion is 20-9 in his first season at the helm of the Herd. He became the first coach to win his 100th game at Marshall since Greg White hit the plateau with a 104-87 win over Akron on March 1, 2002.
Damier Pitts has been one of the Herd's steadiest players since league play began. The junior has averaged 14.4 PPG in conference games and has stepped it up even more, scoring an average of 17.0 in the five-game win streak. His free throw shooting (84.3% for the season) has been counted on late in games and that was the case in the win over SMU as his 4-for-4 performance from the stripe in the final nine seconds sealed the 20th win of the season for the Herd.
UTEP comes into Wednesday's game sporting a 21-8 record and a 9-5 mark in conference play. The Miners have struggled as of late, losing three of their last five, but turned it around with a dominating 74-47 home win over Memphis on Saturday. They have been dominant at home, going 16-2 and 6-1 in home league games.
Randy Culpepper, the Miners' senior guard, is second in the league, putting up 19.6 PPG. He has upped that to a league-high 21.1 points in conference play. Culpepper was their leading scorer in the win over Memphis, leading all scorers with 20 points. Over his last four games, he has averaged 25 points.
The Miners' success over MU continued last season as they nailed down an 80-76 victory in Huntington in 2010. Randy Culpepper led the way with 32 points while Tyler Wilkerson posted a 22-point, 16-rebound effort. Marshall led 36-29 at the half, but a second-half 51-40 rally gave UTEP the victory.
UTEP leads the series against Marshall by a 5-1 margin and has won all five meetings since the teams have been in Conference USA. The Miners are the only league team the Herd has not beaten since entering the league. UTEP has won the two games played in El Paso by an average of 15.5 PPG while the three games played in Huntington have been decided by four points or less.
Following Wednesdays game, the Herd will wrap up the regular season at home against UCF at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are still available by calling the ticket office at 800-THE-HERD or by logging on to www.HerdZone.com. Seniors Tirrell Baines and Orlando Allen will be honored prior to the game.
