Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Middle Tennessee
Johnson, Petty Propel Middle Tennessee Past Thundering Herd
1/12/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Final Stats Postgame Press Conference
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Middle Tennessee women's basketball team got 49 points from its dynamic duo of Ty Petty (26) and Alex Johnson (23) to pull away from host Marshall in the fourth quarter of its 72-63 win over the Thundering Herd in Huntington Thursday evening.
The Blue Raiders improved to 9-6 overall and 4-0 in Conference USA, while Marshall dropped its third-straight contest, falling to 10-6 and 2-3 in the league.
Middle Tennessee has won all six meetings between the two schools.
Petty took 26 shots during the contest, but made seven of her 14 3-point attempts and registered five assists and no turnovers, while playing all 40 minutes. Johnson made nine of her 16 shots and paced the team with seven rebounds and three blocks. Abbey Sissom also never came off the floor and contributed 14 points and nine assists and Jess Louro chipped in four steals in 39 minutes to offset an 0-for-5 shooting performance.
The Thundering Herd was led by sophomore Shayna Gore's (Logan, W.Va.) 25 points on 11-for-16 shooting. She also had four assists in 39 minutes. Classmate Khadaijia Brooks (Bristol, Ct.) notched her second-straight double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Marshall outrebounded the Blue Raiders 43-34, but made just three of its 17 3-point attempts (.176). The Thundering Herd came into the game leading the league, averaging just over eight 3-pointers per game. The visitors made 11 from long range.
Middle Tennessee also forced Marshall into nearly twice as many turnovers (13-7) and turned those into a 12-5 edge in points off those miscues.
The Blue Raiders led 35-30 at the half but the Thundering Herd made six-straight shots in the opening stages of the third quarter to take a three-point lead (42-39) on a jumper by Brooks at the 5:33 mark.
Marshall led from that point until Petty tied the game with a 3-pointer (49-all) with just over three minutes later and Charity Savage tossed in a putback as the period ended to give the visitors a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
The Thundering Herd made it a one-possession contest four times in the final stanza but the Blue Raiders scored 11 of the game's final 15 points to pull away for the victory.
Marshall will be back in action Saturday at 1 p.m. when UAB (8-7, 1-3) visits the Cam Henderson Center. The Blazers were defeated 60-48 at WKU (12-5, 4-1) earlier Thursday.
Marshall Head Coach Matt Daniel
On the team's performance...
We got into foul trouble early and I tried to adjust the lineup as best I could. We went really small and threw everything we had at them. They stepped up and made big plays. Ty Petty had a big night for them, going 7-for-14 on 3-pointers. That was the difference in the game. That's why they went to the NCAA Tournament last year.
On Middle Tennessee...
Their ball movement against the zone is great. They had 11 3-pointers and we only had three. We didn't lose tonight. We got beat and there's a big difference in those terms.
On the fight that the team showed...
I thought that we fought. I thought we tried to execute everything that I tried to execute. When we didn't execute, they made us pay for it. I thought that given the circumstances, we fought our tails off.
