Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
UAB
Thundering Herd Wins 61-58 over UAB
1/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Final Stats
Postgame Press Conference
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Senior forward Talequia Hamilton (Huntington, W.Va.) tallied 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting, eight rebounds and four blocks to lead the Marshall women's basketball team to a grinding 61-58 win over visiting UAB Saturday afternoon.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak and elevated the Thundering Herd to 11-6 overall and 3-3 in Conference USA, while the Blazers fell to 8-8 and 1-4 in the league.
Sophomore Shayna Gore (Logan, W.Va.) overcame a two-point first half to register 11 in the second for 13 points and hit four crucial free throws in the contest's final 20 seconds. Senior Kiana Evans (Huntington, W.Va.) tacked on 11 points.
UAB had a chance to tie the game after Gore's charity tosses gave the home team a three-point lead with 11 seconds left, but Rachael Childress missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Gore collected the rebound to secure the victory.
Junior McKenzie Akers (Princeton, W.Va) came out of a three-game shooting slump and hit two of her three 3-point attempts, including one from the corner to give Marshall a 56-53 lead with 1:22 left. She also tallied five assists and no turnovers.
The Blazers were led by Deanna Kuzmanic's 10 points, but the league's leader in 3-point percentage (.449), made just one of seven attempts from distance. Childress led the team with seven rebounds and Whytney Singleton added six assists.
UAB held a commanding advantage on the glass (41-29), including a 16-4 edge on the offensive end.
Marshall finished the first quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 17-8 lead, but didn't hit a shot for the second quarter's final five minutes, 43 seconds to allow UAB to tie the game at 27 by halftime.
The Thundering Herd really turned up the defensive intensity in the latter stages of the third quarter and all of the fourth. In fact, Marshall held the Blazers to just 5-for-24 shooting (.208) over the game's final 13 minutes, 24 seconds.
The Thundering Herd also did an effective job of getting to the free throw line, making 14 of 20 attempts (.700) to just .400 for UAB (4-for-10).
Akers' two 3-pointers gave her 115 for her career, tying her with former teammate Norrisha Victrum (2013-16) for sixth on the school's all-time list. Next up is another former teammate, AJ Johnson (2013-15), who sits fifth with 117.
The Thundering Herd has now won 18 consecutive games when allowing 68 points or less and is 9-1 at home this season.
"It was a big win," said Marshall coach Matt Daniel. "That team is good offensively and defensively and they basically play four guards. I knew we were going to have some matchup problems. Sometimes when we play a game, the next day we're kind of lethargic. We weren't like that yesterday. We could have played back-to-back games and our mentality was going to be pretty good."
Marshall had six blocked shots in the game to UAB's two, making it the 16th time in 17 games that the program has had as many (or more) blocks than the opposition. Hamilton's four rejections gave her 67 for her career, four shy of Tammy Simms' (1986-87) eighth-place mark of 71.
"Every three we contested didn't go in and every one we didn't, did," Daniel said. "Our defensive execution was the difference in the game. Just like we needed every stop on defense, we needed every bucket on offense. When our execution was good defensively, we were really, really good. When it wasn't, they got open looks because their offensive execution was really good. It's a learning process for our young group. I think that our defense absolutely learned about themselves today."
The Thundering Herd will be back in action Saturday when it travels to WKU (12-5, 4-1 C-USA) for a 3 p.m. ET (2 p.m. CT) game.
