Marshall Hosts FIU for Pair of Weekend Contests

Video Broadcast: CUSA.tv (Friday, Saturday)
Radio Broadcast: WMUL (Friday, Saturday)
Live Stats: SIDEARM
Game Notes: Marshall

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall will host FIU Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 3 in two Conference USA women's basketball contests this weekend at the Cam Henderson Center.

The Thundering Herd is 3-5 and 2-4 in Conference USA, while FIU comes in at 6-6 and 3-3 in the league.

Both of this weekend's games will be found on CUSA.tv, with Marshall's Jake Griffith on the call.

Last Time Out: WKU 69, Marshall 60 on 1/17/21
WKU's Raneem Elgedawy, Meral Abdelgawad and Hope Sivori combined for 51 of the Lady Tops' 69 points and the home team defeated the visiting Marshall women's basketball team 69-60 Sunday afternoon in E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU improved to 3-7 overall and 2-2 in the league, while Marshall dropped to 3-5 and 2-4 in the league.

Elgedawy had 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting, while Abdelgawad made three 3-pointers en route to 16 points and Sivori went 8-for-8 at the free throw line to tally 15. Fatou Pouye had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Marshall received 24 points from Savannah Wheeler, who went 7-for-14 from the floor and 7-for-7 at the free throw line. Kennedi Colclough also added 15 on 7-for-11 shooting. Mahogany Matthews led the team with six rebounds and added two blocks.

The Tops were red-hot to start the game, making five of their first six 3-pointers, to build a 20-11 lead at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter following an Elgedawy triple.

WKU was able to maintain its advantage all the way to the 2:24 mark of the fourth period, when Kristen Mayo made two free throws to give the Thundering Herd its first lead at 54-53.

That was short-lived however, as the Tops ripped off a 12-0 run to grab an 11-point advantage (65-54) on a Myriah Haywood layup with 41 seconds left.

Neither team took especially great care of the ball. Marshall committed 21 turnovers, while the Tops made 19 errors.

WKU held a big edge in free throw attempts (27-11), though the Herd missed just once from there. WKU, however, shot just 59.3 percent (16 makes).

Scouting the Panthers
FIU is off to a 6-6 start this season and sits at 3-3 in Conference USA. The Panthers have gone 3-3 against both non-conference and Conference USA opposition. FIU went on the road and swept ODU to begin league play, before getting swept at home by Middle Tennessee and then splitting with Florida Atlantic.

Kyla Nelson leads FIU with 15.2 points per game, followed by Jiselle Thomas at 14.0 and Emerald Ekpiteta at 13.1. Ekpiteta averages a double-double with 10.6 rebounds (third-best in C-USA). Raquel Ferrer-Bernad leads the way in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.7; league's top mark) and assists with 4.5 per game (fourth in C-USA). Nelson also shoots a blistering 41 percent from 3-point range (34-for-83), the conference's second-highest mark.

FIU is second in the league in scoring offense (76.5), 3-pointers per game (8.3) and assists (15.4), but last in scoring defense (74.8) and field goal percentage defense (44.4).

For all of the latest information on the Marshall women's basketball team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdWBB, Facebook at Marshall University Basketball and on www.herdzone.com.

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Players Mentioned

Kennedi Colclough

Mahogany Matthews

Kristen Mayo

Savannah Wheeler

Marshall University Athletics