Marshall University Athletics
Red-Hot Shooting Keys Thundering Herd Victory
2/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Final Stats
Daniel Press Conference
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall women's basketball team shot 59.6 percent from the field against a stingy UTSA defense and was perfect (18-for-18) from the free throw line to emerge with an 80-76 victory over the Roadrunners Saturday afternoon at the Henderson Center.
The Thundering Herd improved to 16-6 overall and 6-5 in Conference USA, while UTSA dropped to 7-14 and 3-8 in the league.
The Roadrunners came into the game leading Conference USA in field goal percentage defense at 36.8 percent.
Marshall was led by Norrisha Victrum's season-high 19 points on 8-for-14 shooting to go with three assists. Talequia Hamilton made five of her six shots for 14 points and Chelsey Romero and Kiana Evans each chipped in 10. Leah Scott led the team in rebounds (six) and assists (four) and Khadaijia Brooks posted a season-high three steals.
UTSA got an incredible effort from Kasia Kiejdrowski (29 points on 10-for-20 from the field and 6-for-12 from long range), while Crystal Chidomere had 14 and Akunna Elonu notched 13 (6-for-10 shooting) and eight rebounds. Alana Heard had four steals.
"We knew the game was going to be ugly," said Marshall coach Matt Daniel. "We didn't come out ready to play and it hurt us. When our energy is good, we're as productive as anyone, but we didn't have much of that energy today."
UTSA jumped out to an early 8-0 lead but Marshall clawed back and tied the game at 15 before the first quarter was complete.
The second period was a seesaw affair until the Thundering Herd took the lead for good on a Victrum layup with 5:13 left in the third period to give the home team a 45-44 lead.
The lead grew to 12 (67-55) on a Hamilton 3-pointer from the right wing just 12 seconds into the fourth quarter but the Roadrunners trimmed the edge back to two (78-76) on an Elonu layup with 2:10 to go.
After a Marshall miss, Chidomere had game-tying layups blocked by Evans and Scott before Gore salted away the win with a pair of free throws with two seconds left. Those shots capped off a 7-for-7 day at the charity stripe for the Logan native.
Marshall had 44 points in the paint to UTSA's 30, but the Roadrunners held the edge in second chance points (22-6), due in large part to their 19-6 advantage on the offensive glass.
UTSA shot an impressive 9-for-18 (50 percent) from 3-point range, but struggled to a 9-for-15 clip (60 percent) from the free throw line.
The last time Marshall went perfect at the charity stripe was March 5, 2009 in a 76-57 win over Memphis in another 18-for-18 effort.
The game featured 11 lead changes.
"We've won four of our last five, we're in the top half of C-USA, and our grades are great," Daniel said. "We're in a pretty good situation."
The Thundering Herd will be back in action next Sunday when Western Kentucky (18-4, 9-2) comes calling for a 1 p.m. tip after falling to UTEP 85-78 Saturday in Conference USA's battle for first place. The Marshall-WKU game will be televised on the American Sports Network and locally on WVAH digital channel 11.2 (Suddenlink 125, Comcast 133, Time Warner Ashland/Ironton/Portsmouth 305 and Armstrong 94).
