Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Florida Atlantic
BOGACZYK: Herd Reaches 90s on Scoreboard Again
1/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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| Postgame Press Conference
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - When things are going well for Marshall's basketball team, even the "alley-whoops" plays work.
So it started for the Thundering Herd on Thursday night at Cam Henderson Center. On Marshall's first possession, point guard Jon Elmore sent one of those arcing passes toward the hoop. But breaking two-guard Stevie Browning wasn't quite up to the task for a perfect backdoor.
No matter. The 6-foot-3 Browning made the catch, went up on a secondary leap and scored. It was the first bucket in the Herd's 90-67 Conference USA romp past visiting Florida Atlantic, starting the Herd toward its eighth consecutive league victory at home, dating to last season.
On the heels of Marshall's opening 94-76 C-USA win over Western Kentucky on Sunday, it was another impressive effort for Coach Dan D'Antoni's team (6-9, 2-0 C-USA), which has won six of nine after an 0-6 start.
There also was something historically significant in the triumph before a crowd of 4,577.
It marked the first time Marshall has scored 90 points in back-to-back league games since its Mid-American Conference days. On March 1 and 4, 2002, the Greg White-coached Herd won at Akron, 104-87 to close the regular season. Then, in a MAC Tournament home first-round game, Marshall topped Northern Illinois, 97-93.
In its six wins, Marshall is averaging 91 points. In the losses, the Herd is getting only 72, but with the kind of statistical distribution the Herd has shown recently, the good outweighs the bad with FIU (8-7, 2-0) coming to "The Cam" on Saturday night. The Panthers won at WKU's Diddle Arena on Thursday night.
In the rout of the Owls, Ryan Taylor (21 points, 11 rebounds) and James Kelly (18 and 15) posted double-doubles. Browning scored 16 to go with seven boards and six assists. Elmore finished with 12 points and four assists. And off the bench, 6-7 sophomore Terrence Thompson provided 16 strong minutes with 10 rebounds and seven points.
Browning set the tone in the first half, as Kelly was benched after seven minutes with two personals. By halftime, the Fairmont State transfer from Logan had a pair of sevens (points, rebounds) to go with three assists. His comfort level has grown since moving back to shooting guard from the point once Elmore gained his eligibility after missing the first eight games following a transfer from VMI.
"I'm not going to say I was uncomfortable playing the one (point), it was just something I hadn't done before," said Browning, who is averaging 15.0 points in the last four games. "If I took time and had time, I could definitely do it. But this is what I played since I was 9 years old.
"So, it's going back to the norm for me. It's just natural. And being in that attack mode and trying to score at all times is easy. And then, me being in that attack mode, it opens up other people so I can still get assists and help in other ways.
"I know that I just have to come with high energy and I feed off the crowd and when I go in and get rebounds I'm not supposed to get, the crowd does get into it. Getting rebounds for me is a hustle play, and that's what gets my emotions going."
The Herd limited FAU (2-13, 0-2) to 37.5 percent shooting, and the Owls struggled through a 7-of-27 first half. Marshall was 9-of-28 from behind the 3-point arc, but with a 49-34 advantage on the glass and only nine turnovers (just two in the final 20 minutes), long-distance shooting didn't matter as much.
Not that the Herd stopped firing away. D'Antoni's team ranks third among 351 Division I teams in 3-point field goal attempts per game at 29.6, trailing only The Citadel (35.5) and Central Michigan (30.0).
"It's just open," Browning said of the free-wheeling-and-dealing system D'Antoni favors. "You never take a bad shot. Any shot you shoot, you're not going to get yelled at; you're not going to get pulled out. And that in turn helps everybody's confidence.
"And nobody really takes bad shots, if you watch. Everybody is confident, we're moving the ball and we know the ball is eventually going to get to the right man every time. It's easy. Our offense usually starts with our defense and if our defense plays well like it did tonight and against Western, everything really flows and gets into gear."
Of the 20 turnovers in two C-USA wins, five came in the final three and a half minutes back backups in the win over WKU. Considering the fact that Marshall ranks in the top 10 nationally in possessions per game, that lack of giveaways is significant.
"It's about people sharing the ball," Browning said. "And when you're comfortable sharing the ball, you make the first easy play. Coach Dan always talks about making the first easy play. That's what we're doing. When you do that, you get wide open shots."
The numbers don't lie. Marshall has a .504 field goal percentage in its six wins, and is shooting only .389 in the nine defeats.
"We scored 48 points in the paint and did not post up once," D'Antoni said. "We have a different way of scoring at the basket. We face the basket and attack it. Lobs are starting to become a big part of our game, which energizes our team and crowd, and it deflates the opponent."
SEEN 'N' HERD: Taylor's 11 rebounds give him 595 in his three Herd seasons and poised to become the 25th Herd player to reach 600 in a career ââ'¬Â¦ Marshall came into the game averaging 8.6 steals per game, ranking in the top 25 nationally. The Herd pilfered eight against the Owls ââ'¬Â¦ Kelly's 15 rebounds were the collegiate high for the senior, a Miami (Fla.) transfer ââ'¬Â¦ Thompson has 21 points and 20 rebounds in 57 minutes in the last four games ââ'¬Â¦ Marshall's best start in its previous 10 seasons in C-USA is 4-0, reached twice - in 2009-10 under Coach Donnie Jones and by the 2011-12 Tom Herrion-coached team that advanced to the C-USA Tournament title game and broke the school's long NIT drought with the first bid since 1987 ââ'¬Â¦ FAU was playing its 12th game away from Boca Raton this season and goes to WKU on Saturday afternoon.
