Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
1-0,0-0Sun Belt
UMass
0-1,0-0MAC
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marshall | 21 | 19 | 8 | 26 | 74 |
| Massachusetts | 13 | 16 | 24 | 17 | 70 |
11/2/2026 8:59:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Gallagher, Ingram, Olson all tally double-figure points in season opener
Box Score (PDF) | Championship Fund | Buy WBB Season Tickets
AMHERST, Mass. – The Marshall University Women's Basketball (1-0) picked up a 74-70 road win over the UMass Minutewomen in the MAC/SBC Challenge on Monday night in Amherst, Massachusetts, to open the 2026-27 regular season.
That was a big road win, Herd Women's Basketball Head Coach Juli Fulks said. That is an unbelievably good team. They're talented. They have size. They have speed. They run a lot of different defenses. We've been prepping for that game since we found out knowing that they were going to run three different presses at us. I was really proud of our team in the first half when they had to pull the press off.
Olivia Olson led the with 17 points and four assists as Kassie Ingram added 15 points and Cassie Gallagher contributed 14 in her first game in the Green and White. Ingram also went 6-for-8 from the field and finished tied with Olson for the game-high in steals at three.
Ni'Kiah Chesterfield and Leyocha Marigney tallied five points and rejected a pair of shots each in the victory.
After the opening bucket of the game was scored by the Minutewomen, the Herd answered with an 8-0 run with a Chesterfield layup, four points from Ingram and a lay in by Gallagher to go up 8-2. MU ended the first quarter with a jumper from Paris Gilmore and a layup by Ingram to take a 21-13 advantage.
A layup from Anaya Harris to start the second quarter gave Marshall its first double-digit lead of the contest at 23-13. The Herd used a 7-0 run with free throws from Chesterfield and Marigny to go with an Olson triple and a Harris layup to take a 15-point advantage at 35-20, its largest of the contest, at the 5:05 mark. MU carried a 40-29 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was all UMass outscoring Marshall 24-8 in the period, including 20-1 from 6:04 until the end of the quarter, as the visitors trailed 53-48 heading into the fourth.
The Herd answered with 14 of the first 18 points of the final period, including five from Olson, to regain the lead at 62-57 with 6:29 left in the game. The teams traded points down the stretch, but Gallagher iced the game with a pair of freebies in the final seconds to seal the road win as the team went a perfect 9-for-9 at the charity stripe in the quarter.
The Herd made 47.4 percent (27-for-57) from the field while holding the Minutewomen to just 37.1 percent (26-for-70).
UP NEXT
Marshall starts a three-game home swing on Friday against North Carolina A&T at 6 p.m. in the Cam Henderson Center.
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