Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Southern Miss
Long-Range Attack Powers Marshall to 10-Point Road Win
3/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Final Stats
HATTIESBURG, Ms. - Visiting Marshall tied a season-high with 11 3-pointers and held host Southern Miss to 15.4 shooting in the fourth quarter to record a 63-53 win Saturday evening at Reed Green Coliseum.
With the win, Marshall improved to 19-10 overall and 9-9 in Conference USA. The 19 wins are the most for the program since the 2004-05 season and the .500 league mark is the best since 2006-07, the program's second year in the conference.
Southern Miss dropped to 14-15 and 7-11 with the loss.
Leah Scott tied a career-high with three 3-pointers en route to 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting, while Kiana Evans also tied a career-high with four 3-pointers on her way to 17 points, a team-high seven rebounds and three assists. Talequia Hamilton also had three assists, while posting three blocked shots in the game's first 12 minutes. Norrisha Victrum had three assists as well and is now 22 points shy of becoming the program's 20th player with 1,000 career points.
Shayna Gore gave Marshall a big boost off the bench with 13 points with two 3-pointers in 23 minutes.
Southern Miss was led by Caitlin Jenkins's double-double effort of 12 points and 15 rebounds (with three blocks), while Brittany Dinkins added 11 points, five steals and four assists. Jayla King also had 10 points.
The Golden Eagles jumped in front early, building a nine-point lead (19-10) on a Jenkins layup with 3:38 left in the first quarter. However, Marshall got two Evans 3-pointers sandwiched around a Gore layup to pull right back within one before the end of the period.
After trailing 35-31 at the half, Marshall took the lead for good when Scott nailed a 3-pointer off an Evans assist to put the visitors up 36-35 just over a minute into the second half.
Southern Miss cut the lead to two (47-45) on a Jenkins jumper at the 8:57 mark of the fourth quarter, but the Thundering Herd answered right back with a Porter jumper, a Gore 3-pointer and layup to go back in front by nine (54-45) with 5:52 left.
The Golden Eagles played hard to the very end, but the Thundering Herd held on for the program's first back-to-back Conference USA road wins since Jan. 17, 2010 at Houston and Jan. 23, 2010 at Tulsa.
Marshall is now 18-0 this season when leading with five minutes left and 10-0 when holding opponents to 60 points or less.
"This was a program-changing weekend for us," said Marshall coach Matt Daniel. "Our kids continue to leave everything out on the floor and it seems like every time you turn around, someone different is stepping up for us. That's the beauty of the way we play."
"For us to end the regular season with 19 wins, the last time being a decade ago, I'm just elated for our student-athletes, coaches, university, and the community of women's basketball following that has been created."
The Thundering Herd will be either the six or seven seed and will play Wednesday evening in next week's Conference USA Tournament in Birmingham. The bracket will be finalized following Saturday evening's Western Kentucky-Louisiana Tech affair. A WKU win will give Marshall the six seed.
