Marshall University Athletics
Thundering Herd Bound for Birmingham
2/15/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game Notes
Live Video
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall women's basketball team (12-11 overall, 4-8 Conference USA) travels to UAB (12-12, 5-8) Thursday for an 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT contest in Bartow Arena.
SCOUTING UAB
UAB returns home after winning at Charlotte (88-81) and losing (73-61) at Old Dominion. Rachael Childress (12.5) is the team's leading scorer and leads the team with 73 3-pointers. Keonna Farmer (6.9) is the leading rebounder, free throw shooter (78.4) and is tops in steals (44) as well. She and Kara Rawls (18) share the team lead in blocked shots. Rawls shoots the highest field goal percentage on the team at 60.2 percent.
The Blazers lead the league in 3-point percentage (38.5) and it really isn't close as Middle Tennessee sits second at 36.0 percent. They are 13th in the conference in offensive rebounds per game (10.5) and offensive rebounding percentage (30.4). In league-only games, Farmer's 84.8 free throw percentage is the top mark in the conference, as is Miyah Barnes' 3-point percentage (50.0) and Childress' 3.6 3-pointers per game.
LAST TIME OUT
Senior forward Talequia Hamilton 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 on January 14 in Huntington.
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).
MARSHALL IN CONFERENCE USA
The Thundering Herd leads C-USA (all games) in:
3-Point Field Goal Percentage Defense: 28.5
3-Point Field Goals Made: 8.0
CAREER-HIGH
Logan Fraley played a career-high 31 minutes in the 78-64 loss to WKU on Feb. 11.
LONG-RANGE
Fraley (2nd, 38.1) and Taylor Porter (7th, 35.6) are currently in the school's top 10 in career 3-point percentage. Meanwhile, Shayna Gore (52) is sixth in Marshall's single-season 3-point records. AJ Johnson (72, 2014-15) holds that all-time mark).
IRONWOMAN
Hamilton has been extremely durable and dependable during her season and a half with the program. Not only has she played in all 56 of Marshall's games during that period, but she has started all of them as well. She has been especially effective of late, registering double-figure scoring in eight of her last 11 games. In league games, she is the conference's top shot blocker at 2.6 per outing. Hamilton's one rejection vs. WKU gave her 84 for her career, three shy of Lisa Pruner's (1980-84) seventh-place mark of 87 in the school's all-time records. In single-season blocks, her 46 this season is the fifth-highest in school history. This season, she has been exceptional on the defensive end, registering 16 straight games with at least one block.
ON PACE
This year's Thundering Herd is on pace to set its best marks under head coach Matt Daniel. Currently, they are:
72.4 points per game (70.5 in 2015-16)
43.3 field goal percentage (42.6 percentage in 2015-16)
8.0 3-pointers per game (6.6 in 2015-16)
33.1 3-point field goal percentage (31.5 percentage in 2014-15)
28.5 3-point field goal percentage defense (29.4 percentage in 2014-15)
13.7 offensive rebounds (12.7 in 2013-14)
41.0 rebounds (38.4 in 2013-14)
5.3 blocks (4.4 in 2013-14)
2.0 blocks allowed (2.2 in 2012-13)
AKERS GOES LONG
Marshall junior McKenzie Akers is fourth in the school's record book with 124 3-pointers after passing Toni Patillo (121, 1997-2001). Next up is Cindy McCauley in third (131, 1994-98), followed by Natal Rosko in second (136, 1994-98) and Sikeetha Shepard-Hall (146, 2002-06).
STINGY DEFENSE
The Thundering Herd leads the league in 3-point field goal percentage defense (28.5). In Marshall's 12 wins, it has yielded just a 33.2 shooting percentage (244-for-736) and 23.7 (64-for-270) from 3-point range and has allowed more than 67 points just once (81, at UTSA). In fact, dating back to last season, Marshall has won 18 straight games when allowing 68 points or less (L at Middle Tennessee, 65-54, 1/28/16).
FRESHMAN INSIDE FORCE
Freshman forward Ashley Saintigene has been a force around the paint. Saintigene is third in Conference USA with 1.7 blocks per contest, while ranking fifth in offensive rebounds (3.3). She is also third on the team in rebounding at 6.4 per game. All of those stats have been accrued in just 16.4 minutes per game. The Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., native was named Conference USA Freshman of the Week Dec. 12, Dec. 23 and Jan. 3.
KB WORKS GLASS, ARC
Sophomore forward Khadaijia Brooks has been working the interior and the arc for Marshall in 2016-17. Brooks is one of the team's leading rebounders with 6.5 caroms per game. She has recorded at least five boards in all but five contests and grabbed a career-high 12 against Maine-Fort Kent, when she also posted a career-high 22 points. She recorded back-to-back double-doubles at Charlotte (12 points, 10 rebounds) and versus Middle Tennessee (11 points, 10 rebounds). She has also greatly improved her 3-point shooting in 2016-17. Last season, she made just one of six attempts (16.7). This season, that figure is 35.1 percent (20-for-57). She went 4-for-4 against Maine-Fort Kent, but then made just one of her next 13 attempts over her next four games. She has since rebounded to connect on 10 of her last 17 long-range shots in the last five contests.
BLOCK PARTY
The Herd has more blocks than the opposition (or as many as) in all but two games (at North Carolina, at UTEP). Marshall recorded 10 blocks in the season debut at Illinois and followed that with 11 swats versus FIU on Dec. 30. Against the Fighting Illini, redshirt-senior Talequia Hamilton led Marshall with a career-high five rejections. Freshman Ashley Saintigene had three blocks in her Herd debut (all coming in the second quarter).
