Marshall Aiming to Bounce Blazers in Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM, Al. – The Marshall women's basketball team will take on UAB on Saturday in Bartow Arena. The game will tip at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT and will be carried on CUSA.tv.

The Thundering Herd enters the game with an 11-6 overall record and 6-2 mark in Conference USA play. The Blazers come in at 11-6 overall and 4-2 in the league.

Game Details
Game Notes: Marshall (PDF)
Live Stats: UAB
Live Video: CUSA.tv
Marshall Radio: 88.1 WMUL-FM and online at http://listen.streamon.fm/wfghhd5 with Jason Corriher
Series History: 29 all-time meetings – UAB leads 15-14
Last Meeting: January 11, 2020 in Huntington – Marshall won 61-56.

Marshall is coming off an 80-41 loss at Middle Tennessee on Thursday in Murphy Arena.

Middle's Kseniya Malashka had a game-high 22 points off the bench for head coach Rick Insell. She was joined in double figures by Anastasiia Boldyreva (17) and Courtney Whitson (10). Malashka also had a game-high seven rebounds. Alexis Whittington led the way with three steals.

Savannah Wheeler led Marshall with 15 points. Her eight first-half points pushed her past Thundering Herd Hall of Famer Lea Ann Parsley for 19th on the program's all-time scoring list.

Kia Sivils recorded six rebounds and Aaliyah Dunham paced the visitors with three steals.

Kennedi Colclough hit two free throws to give Marshall an 11-8 lead with 3:05 left in the first quarter. However, the Blue Raiders ran off 19 straight points over the next seven minutes to take a commanding 16-point advantage.

Middle led by 13 (39-26) at the half and would allow Marshall no closer than 19 points the rest of the way.

"Obviously it was not a very good effort from us," Herd coach Tony Kemper said. "They put our defense in a lot of really bad spots that hurt us from all over the place. Our post defense was not very good, the perimeter defense was not very good when we leave people open that are good shooters like they are.

"We got down and we carried ourselves like we were trying to move on … which we need to do. This was an embarrassing effort with an embarrassing result, and we have the same record as they do in the league. We will have to make a whole lot of things different when we play them at home, because we will get another chance to play them. But it is on to UAB."

The Thundering Herd, so adept at forcing turnovers en route to its fast league start, committed 19 miscues of its own Thursday.

Middle held big margins in points off turnovers (23-9), points in the paint (30-6), second chance points (22-8) and bench points (28-3).

The Opponent
The Blazers rebounded from a 58-52 home loss against Louisiana Tech on January 22 with an 86-70 victory over WKU on Thursday. The loss for the Hilltoppers knocked WKU into second place in the East Division, just below Charlotte. UAB remains at the top of the West Division.

The Blazers dominated inside against WKU, winning the rebounding battle 50-39. UAB also scored 38 points in the paint and hit eight three-pointers. Emily Klaczek was on fire from outside, going 6-of-9 from three and finishing with a team-high 26 points. Zakyia Weathersby earned her 13th double-double of the season (the NCAA's sixth-highest total) with 14 points and 13 boards.

UAB is the best rebounding team in the league, averaging 43.6 per game. The Blazers allow only 35.3 boards per game, third in C-USA, and rank first in rebounding margin at plus-8.3. Weathersby leads the conference in rebounds (202) and rebounds per game with 11.9, which also ranks fourth nationally. She has grabbed 10 or more boards in 13 contests including all six league games. Weathersby's name can be found all over the NCAA leaderboards, ranking in the top 20 in five categories, including three in the top 10. Overall, she ranks in the top 50 in eight categories.

Along with rebounding, the Blazers are high atop the assist totals. Maria Roters leads with 3.1 assists per game and UAB features four players averaging at least two helpers per game. As a team, the Blazers average 14.5 assists per game, good for third in C-USA.

Weathersby not only leads the team in rebounds, but she is also the leader in points (15.8 ppg) and blocked shots (1.8 bpg). The star center has scored in double-digits in every game this season and has swatted two or more shots eight times, with a season-high of six rejections against Mississippi Valley State.

Head coach Randy Norton is in his ninth season at the helm in Birmingham. He sports a 158- 103 record at UAB.

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.

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