Herd Insider Magazine - Official website. Cover Marshall Sports since 1998

VESTAL, N.Y. - Marshall can throw big bodies at teams this season, with 6-foot-8 senior Tyler Wilkerson, 6-foot-10 sophomore Nigel Spikes and 7-foot freshman Hassan Whiteside. Against the Binghamton Bearcats, Wilkerson and Whiteside were too tall and too much for the young BU team to deal with

Wilkerson had 19 points and five rebounds, while Whiteside scored 12 points, also grabbed five rebounds and blocked another five shots to lead the Thundering Herd past Binghamton, 69-55, on a cold Monday night, Dec. 7 in the BU Events Center in the suburb of Binghamton, Vestal, New York.

It was the first-ever meeting between the Herd and the Bearcats, although MU had won two games in a Binghamton-hosted event in 1999-2000 under former head coach Greg White. It marked the third straight win for the Herd over a team with a feline mascot dressed in green and white like the Herd wears.

Marshall improved to 6-1 with the win over the Binghamton Bearcats, following wins over the Salem International Tigers (119-35) and the Ohio U. Bobcats (60-53). BU falls to 3-6 on the year and suffered its first loss of the season at home, trying for a second win in a row over a team of Bison, following Saturday's win over Bucknell (64-60).

Binghamton took an early three-point lead, and the game was tied 5-5 at the first media timeout at 15:26 to go in the first half. From there, Marshall mounted an 20-3 run that saw Wilkerson score eight points during the span to push the Herd out to 25-8, at the 7:22 mark.

The Bearcats were eventually down by 22 points, 35-13, at MU ran another 10-to-5 run to 3:45 in the first. The halftime score was 37-20, as Marshall held a third-consecutive opponent to 21 points or less at half.

I was proud of our team and how all of our players contributed," said Herd head coach Donnie Jones. "We tried to use our press and wear them down.  (With that said), we have a lot to learn from.  I didn't think we guarded well in the second half, but we took care of the ball and found a way to win."

The Thundering Herd held Binghamton to seven first half field goals and 31.8 percent shooting (7-of-31).  Marshall  missed 5-of-6 shots to start the game, then responded by making 13-of-21 the rest of the half for 52 percent, including Chris Lutz knocking down 2-of-4 threes in the half.  The Thundering Herd forced 14 turnovers, scoring 16 points off the turnovers.

The second half was a different matter. The Bearcats turned up the defensive pressure, drawing five fouls in the first five minutes of the half but cutting the lead to 12 points, 43-31. Coming out of the 11:52 media timeout, Binghamton's Moussa Camara hit 2-of-2 at the line and BU was down just three, 43-40.

"Last year, we might not have won the game at that point," said Jones. "Our team is beginning to show maturity and that is what wins on the road."

Back and forth the lead went, never less four for Binghamton and never more than nine for MU until there was 4:03 left in the game. With MU up seven, Whiteside, connected on the first three-pointer of his career to give the Herd a 10-point lead, 63-53, and broke the spirit of the Bearcats and a noisy crowd of 2,945 fans who were giving Whiteside the devil over his 1-for-5 free throw shooting.

"I'd like to tell you we drew up a three-point play for Hassan," said Jones. "But it was one of those, 'oh, no...good shot!'"

Whiteside would block three of the five blocks in the game in the waining moments of the game, hit another 17-foot shot with 1:53 to go and then draw a double-team and find Wilkerson for a thunderous dunk that gave MU a 12-point lead with one minute to play and sent to patrons to the aisles. Shaq Johnson hit two free thows to set the final at 69-55.

Wilkerson went 8-of-12 from the field, dished out a team-tied high three assists and made two steals.  Whiteside ended the night shooting 7-of-7 from the field and 1-of-1 from three, and now has 31 blocks for the Herd in seven games. Wilkerson led the Herd last season with just 16 blocks, and now has 81 in his career with one versus Binghamton, good for ninth all-time at MU. 

Lutz (4-for-8 from the floor and 3-of-6 from three) and Dago Pena each scored 11, and Pena led the team with four steals. Marshall won the game despite only six points from Johnson on his 12-points per game average and a 0-for-everything night for point guard Damier Pitts, who was 0-3 from the field, 0-for-2 from three and, most surprising, 0-of-2 at the line with 2:40 left in the game for the better than 90 percent career shooter.

Chretien Lukusa and Dylan Talley led Binghamton with 12 points each.  Marshall shot 52.1 percent for the game (25-of-48) while the Bearcats ended the night with a 42.6 percent performance (20-of-47) after just making 7-of-22 in the first half.

Marshall forced 19 turnovers and had nine steals, while shooting 7-of-16 from three (44 percent).

"My hat's off to Mark Macon and his staff, I was impressed how hard his team competes," said Jones.   "Binghamton has a great building and a great atmosphere. 

Up next for the Thundering Herd is Troy University, picked as the runner-up in the Sun Belt Conference to only Western Kentucky, this Saturday, Dec. 12, in the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington. It is the first of three home games for MU, including Brescia University on Dec. 16 and High Point on Dec. 20, part of a men's-women's doubleheader as the Marshall women's team of Coach Royce Chadwick will face UT-Martin at 4 p.m. that day, following the men's 2 p.m. tip.

Both of those games will air on SuperTalk 94.1 FM and AM 930 in Huntington.

Comments

Search

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."