Herd Heads to Middle Tennessee for Thursday Evening Contest

MURFREESBORO, Tn. – The Marshall women's basketball team will travel to Middle Tennessee for a Thursday evening game in Murfreesboro's Murphy Center. The tip time is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT.

The Thundering Herd enters the game with an 11-5 overall record and is 6-1 in Conference USA play. The Blue Raiders come in at 13-5 and 5-2 in the league.

Game Details
Game Notes: Marshall (PDF)
Live Stats: Middle Tennessee
Live Video: CUSA.tv
Marshall Radio: WMUL online at www.marshall.edu/wmul on Stream 2 with Jason Corriher
Series History: 12 all-time meetings – Middle Tennessee leads 10-2
Last Meeting: March 4-5 in Murfreesboro – Marshall won game one 72-49, Middle Tennessee won game two 61-54.

Marshall is coming off a 57-44 overtime win at home against Florida Atlantic on Saturday.

Sophomore Savannah Wheeler led all scorers with 18 points.

The Thundering Herd improved to 11-5 overall and 6-1 in league play. It is Marshall's best start in Conference USA through the first seven conference games and its best league start since a 9-1 record during the 1988-89 season as members of the Southern Conference. The Owls fall to 4-13 overall and 0-6 in C-USA.

The Owls fall to 4-13 overall and 0-6 in C-USA.

Marshall's defense has not allowed an opponent to score 60 points in nine of its last 10 games. Saturday was the Herd's first overtime game since a 73-68 win over Old Dominion on Feb. 6, 2021.

Wheeler scored in double-figures for the 19th-straight game, the 55th time in her career, and now has 1,046 career points. She moved ahead of Marshall Athletics Hall of Famer Robin Vealey (1972-76) and is now 20th all-time in program history. Wheeler is eight points away from surpassing another hall of famer in Lee Ann Parsley (1986-90).

Graduate student Kennedi Colclough put up 15 points and senior Brianah Ferby scored 11. Freshman CC Mays had seven points and senior Aaliyah Dunham rounded out the scoring with six. Dunham handed out six assists and had just one turnover. She came into the game leading the conference and ranked 15th in the country in assist/turnover ratio. Saturday was Dunham's eighth game this season with five or more assists. She has 440 assists overall in her collegiate career and 69 this season, an average of 4.3 per game.

The Herd received a resounding team effort on the glass. After being outrebounded 11-7 in the first quarter, including a possession where the Owls grabbed three offensive boards, Marshall finished the day with a 49-39 advantage in rebounds. The 49 boards were a season-high and the most for the Herd since grabbing that many at Middle Tennessee last season (March 5).

Colclough, Roper and Mays tied for the team lead with eight each. The eight boards were a season-high for both Colclough and Mays. Roper continued her string of at least six rebounds in now 11 consecutive games. The Charlotte, N.C. native is averaging 7.9 boards per game in league play.

Wheeler added six rebounds and Dunham tied her season-high with six as well. Sophomore Alexis Johnson grabbed three rebounds and had one steal. Freshman Aarionna Redman had two boards and two assists.

Both teams struggled offensively throughout much of the day, trading baskets and leads. There were 11 ties and 10 lead changes throughout the contest. The Herd hit three three-pointers in the first quarter but shot 3-of-11 (27.3-percent) from the field. Florida Atlantic was 5-of-15 (33.3-percent) from the floor and led 12-9 at the end of the first.

In the second quarter, the Herd scored the first five points, all on free throws. The Owls did not score a point in the second until Rita Pleskevich hit a jumper in the paint with 1:48 left in the first half to tie the score at 14-14. With 1:21 on the clock, Mays sank two free throws to give Marshall a two-point lead. Pleskevich hit another jump shot to tie the game at 16-16 with 34 seconds left. Mays missed a shot with four seconds left and Roper grabbed the rebound. She then quickly found Dunham on the outside who hit a three at the buzzer to give Marshall a 19-16 halftime lead. The teams combined to shoot 3-of-28 from the field. The Herd was 7-of-12 from the line in the second.

Offensively, the third quarter was better for both teams. Marshall shot 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from the field and hit its first two-point basket of the game on a jumper from Ferby at the 8:07 mark. In the first half, the Herd hit four three-pointers and seven free throws. The Owls shot just 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from the floor but did sink three three-pointers and were 5-of-6 from the line. The Herd led by four with 5:05 to go in the period after Wheeler converted a fast-break layup, drew the foul, and hit the free throw. FAU managed to get the deficit to two points, 34-32, at the end of the third.

The fourth quarter was another back-and-forth fight with three lead changes coming in the final minutes. Marshall led 38-36 before Sofia Galeron hit a three to give the Owls a one-point lead. With 1:49 to go, Ferby drove into the paint and got a jump shot to fall through while also being fouled. She hit the free throw to put the Herd back out in front by two, 41-39.

Janeta Rozentale hit a three with 54 seconds remaining, giving Florida Atlantic another one-point lead at 42-41. On the next possession coming out of a timeout, Dunham found Colclough down low for a layup that put Marshall back up by one, 43-42. The Owls responded as Rozentale scored with 23 seconds to go and the Herd found itself back down by one. With the clock under ten seconds, Dunham drove to the rim and was fouled. She hit one of the free throws to tie the game at 44-44 with seven seconds left. FAU tried one last three but couldn't get it to fall. The teams headed for overtime.

Marshall turned up the defensive pressure another notch in the extra period as the Owls were 0-for-8 from the floor and 0-for-6 from beyond the arc. The Herd outrebounded Florida Atlantic 8-3, with seven defensive boards, cutting off second chance opportunities. The Owls had three turnovers while Marshall committed zero in overtime. Wheeler and Ferby scored four points each. Ferby started the scoring in OT with a three on the Herd's first possession. Marshall shot 3-of-4 from the floor and hit six free throws as well on the way to the win.

Scouting the Blue Raiders
The Blue Raiders are also 6-0 at home. Middle Tennessee opened league play with a 29-point win (85-56) on the road at UTSA, then fell by one at UTEP. Back home the Blue Raiders defeated Rice by 24 points (87-63) and then ran over North Texas by 28 (80-52). Middle Tennessee then went back on the road for three games with a four-point win at Florida Atlantic, a 2-point overtime loss at FIU and then a 10-point win at Southern Miss.

This year the Blue Raiders have been one of the best long-range teams in the country, on offense and defense. Middle Tennessee is seventh in the NCAA in three-point field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to convert on just 24.4-percent of attempts. Meanwhile, on offense the Blue Raiders fire almost 31 three-point attempts per game, hitting 9.5 per contest which is good for first in the league and ninth in the nation. The team's three-point percentage is 30.8, fourth in C-USA and 171st in the NCAA.

Individually, the Blue Raiders sport three players in the top five in C-USA in three-pointers attempted, made, made per game and percentage with Dor Saar, Courtney Whitson and Jalynn Gregory. Saar is 13th in the nation in three-pointers attempted with 144, an average of 8.5 per game, and is 31st with 46 made. Whiston has hit 35 three-pointers and Gregory has drained 33. The three sharp-shooters have combined for 114 made three-pointers, more than all but two teams in C-USA as WKU has hit 147 and FIU has 114.

Middle Tennessee also has four players in the top 10 in C-USA in minutes per game with all logging over 33 per contest. Whitson leads the league at just under 39 minutes per game. Saar and Kseniya Malashka lead the team in scoring with 12.8 points per game. Whitson is right behind at 12.6. The Blue Raiders rank 11th in the league in rebounds per game (36.35) with Whitson leading the squad at 7.6 boards per contest.

Head coach Rick Insell is in his 17th season at the helm with a record of 391-142.

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 HerdZone.com.

Herd Heads to Middle Tennessee for Thursday Evening Contest

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Players Mentioned

Kennedi Colclough

Aaliyah Dunham

Brianah Ferby

Alexis Johnson

CC Mays

Aarionna Redman

Savannah Wheeler

Marshall University Athletics