By Woody Woodrum

Herd Insider Senior Editor

January 25, 2012

HUNTINGTON - There are nights when the ball, for what ever reason, just will not go into or stay down in the basket for a team.

Then, there was the night by the Thundering Herd of Marshall, as MU hosted UAB in the Cam Henderson Center on Wednesday night.

The Thundering Herd scored a season-low 49 points in a 56-49 loss to UAB.

The shooting night including the worst second-half of the year when Marshall scored just 21 points, as Marshall lost its third consecutive game overall and second-straight in Conference USA.

UAB won in Huntington for the fourth-straight time, and improved to 6-2 all-time when playing the Herd in the Henderson Center in Conference USA.

“It’s obviously a disappointing loss,” said Marshall head coach Tom Herrion.

“We didn’t get the job done, especially on the offensive end of the floor.”

Not getting the job done is putting it mildly when talking about the Herd’s shooting night on Wednesday.

Marshall (13-7, 4-2 in C-USA) scored only 49 points in a game, the first time since last year’s game with UAB (7-12, 2-4 in C-USA) in the Henderson Center.

Marshall also got beat by the Blazers at home last year, 64-48, back on Feb. 12, 2011, but that UAB team went on to win the Conference USA championship and advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Marshall hit only 35.2 percent of its shots (19-of-54), the second-worst shooting performance of the year (.338 vs. Syracuse in the Carrier Dome back in December), and was even worse in the second half of the game when the Herd shot 29.6 percent, making just 8-of-27 in the second half.

Herd Insider Sr. Editor

January 21, 2012

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Marshall University had a lot of history working against the Herd when Southern Miss handed MU its first Conference USA loss of the year, 67-63, at Reed Green Coliseum on the campus of USM in Hattiesburg, Miss.

First off, Marshall had never won at Southern Miss in C-USA action, now 0-5 the Coliseum.

Then, the Herd was 0-6 in C-USA following the annual in-state battle with West Virginia, which Marshall played in Wednesday before heading to Mississippi. Marshall has now lost eight in a row after playing WVU, no matter if the Herd wins or loses, and is 13-24 after the annual battle for the Mountain State.

Third, Marshall has had win streaks of five in a row, then two losses, four in a row, then two losses, and now two losses in a row after another four-game win streak.

Finally, Marshall has trailed by double-digit at halftime three times: by 13 at Syracuse, losing by six; trailing by 12 at Belmont, losing by five; and trailing the Golden Eagles by 12 at halftime and losing tonight by four points.

Marshall outscored Southern Miss by eight points in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to break up all that history.

The loss was Marshall’s second straight,  and first in a Conference USA game. The Herd fell to 13-6 overall and 4-1 in C-USA. USM improved to 17-3 overall and 4-1 in C-USA.

Marshall falls into a second-place tie with 4-1 Southern Miss and Memphis, while UCF has the brief lead in the league with a 5-1 mark, that only loss thanks to the Thundering Herd in Huntington last Saturday.

Marshall fought back from as much as 16 points down in the game, finally getting USM’s lead into single-digits at 56-47 with 8:48 left in the game.

Marshall continued to battle, cutting a 62-54 lead with 2:29 on the clock to 64-63 with :46.5 left on threes by Shaquille Johnson, DeAndre Kane and finally Dennis Tinnon, who nailed his first three attempt of the year to make the game a one-point affair.