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

HUNTINGTON - Marshall men's basketball had lost five games in a row, and was more than due to a big games to shake off the losing streak.

While the Herd had suffered an eight-point loss to No. 6 WVU, then a two-point loss to UAB, a three-point loss to Memphis and a four-point loss at Tulsa on Wednesday (not to mention a blowout at Houston), the team had injured players and suspended players as the losses mounted.

When the check came due, it was unfortunate for the East Carolina Pirates they were at ground zero when the Herd exploded.

ECU, who was also struggling with seven losses in its last eight games, came into the Cam Henderson Center where East Carolina was 0-8 all-time and left with the biggest win for the Herd against a Division I opponent in over 25 years.

MU exploded for 67 points in the second half and had four players score 15-to-17 points apiece to run away with the win, 100-49, in Conference USA action Feb. 6 in the Henderson Center in front of 5,603 on a night with cold temps and snow throughout the state - but not so much in Huntington.

Marshall’s 67 points in the second half is the fourth-most points scored by a Herd men's team in a half since the program begin in 1906

“It’s a new season and we are 1-0 and I am proud of our team tonight,” Marshall head coach Donnie Jones said of starting a run down the stretch to prepare for March's C-USA Tournament in Tulsa.

“I am proud of the way our team came back in the second half, with 67 points and we played the way we want to play with 26 assists and only seven turnovers."

Junior Tirrell Baines scored a season-high 18 points (14 in the second half) on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor to help MU (16-7, 5-4 C-USA) snap a five-game losing streak.

Baines had missed four games, then came back against UAB from a knee scope, but played only three minutes. He then missed two more games before playing 12 minutes at Tulsa, with three points and two rebounds, before exploding tonight on the Pirates.

" I am excited for Tirrell Baines, we missed his energy when he was out," said Jones. "The good news is he is back and getting stronger each game.”

Senior Tyler Wilkerson, who scored a career-high 26 points at TU in the loss, connected on eight baskets en route to a 17-point effort along with five rebounds and blocking the 95th and 96th shots of his career.

Speaking of bouncing back and blocks, freshman Hassan Whiteside scored 15  points and four blocked shots, giving him 122 blocks this season.

Whiteside struggled against fellow 7-foot center Jerome Jordan at Tulsa, scoring ten points on 4-of-9 shooting and picking up just one rebound in 25 minutes. He led the Herd with six rebounds in only 18 minutes played, scoring all his points but one in the second half.

Senior Chris Lutz poured in 13-of-15 points in the last stanza, including four three-pointers after intermission. Lutz was 4-of-6 from three in the second half, giving him 218 threes (in 545 attempts) in a career including two seasons at Purdue and two seasons played at MU.

Finally, sophomore point guard Damier Pitts bounced back from a suspension earlier this week, his second missed game of the year, with a team-leading seven assists and only one turnover in 21 minutes.

Pitts added four points, two rebounds and a steal, while senior Darryl Merthie had five points, three assists, two rebounds and just one turnover in his second-straight start at the point.

MU had 26 assists on 38 made baskets. 26 helpers are the 15th most in a game in school history.

Trailing 8-7 with 14:05 to play in the first half, the Thundering Herd mounted an 11-0 run, capped off by a dunk from Wilkerson and layup from Shaquille Johnson to hold take a 18-8 lead at the 7:54 mark.  The suffocating defense of Marshall held the ECU shooters to just 23.5 percent (4-for-17) from the field in the opening half.

The Pirates did not make a basket for the last 14 minutes of the half, until Erin Straughn drained a three-pointer as time expired in the first stanza.

Lutz opened the second half by sinking a pair of threes around a bucket from Wilkerson to force the Pirates into a timeout with 18:16 left.

Following the stoppage of play, Whiteside went on an offensive tear, scoring nine-straight points to help expand the Herd, 50-30 and the rout was on.

MU made 26-of-40 (65 percent) shots in the second half, including 7-of-10 from beyond the arc.

For the game, the Herd shot 56 percent for the game, knocking down 38-of-68 shots, including 8-of-16 from three.

East Carolina head coach Mack McCarthy, an old-Marshall rival in his days at Chattanooga and now three seasons leading ECU, said it was his worst loss in his coaching career.

"That's about as poorly a prepared team as I've ever been responsible for," McCarthy said. "We couldn't do anything. Certainly have to give Marshall credit; they played like a team that was kind of mad they lost five in a row, and they played pretty well during that stretch. They played pretty well in some games, and they could have won, and they played with that edge."

The Pirates (7-16, 1-8 C-USA) were paced by Brock Young and Darius Morrow, who each scored 11 points apiece in the loss.

Chad Wynn and Jamar Abrams each had eight rebounds, but MU won the board battle 39-to-33. ECU had 22 turnovers on the night.

The Pirates made only 8-of-31 shots in the second half, including an 0-for-8 from three.

On the night, ECU shot 25 percent (12-of-48) from the floor and seven percent from three (1-of-14). Free throw shooting kept ECU in the game early on, as the Pirates made 80 percent at the line, 24-of-30.

Marshall scored at least 100 points for the fourth time this season and the 143rd in the program’s history. Marshall last had at least four 100-point games in 1995-96, when Donnie Jones was a second-year assistant for Billy Donovan at Marshall.

"You're just happy to win by one, if you're struggling to finish games," said Jones. "The biggest thing we needed was confidence; I was pumping confidence in them.

"I was telling them how good we were playing defensively. We were just fouling too much. So I was really focusing on defense.

"I knew offense would come."

Donavan's team, by the way, had six 100-point games in Donovan's second season at MU, before taking the Florida Gator job in 1996-97.

The Herd’s 51-point margin of victory was the 10th largest in school history and

Donovan's 1994-95 team was the last to beat a Division I opponent by at least 50 points.

That edition of the Herd knocked off Southern Conference rival Georgia Southern by 50 points, 103-53, on Feb. 11, 1995. That Marshall club won the SC North Division.

Also on the night, McCarthy set a record for opposing head coaches appearing in the Henderson Center against the Herd with his 15th stop. McCarthy is 5-10 all-time with ECU (0-3) and UTC (5-7, 1985-1997), when the Herd and the Mocs battled in the SC.

The Herd step out of conference for the final time this season Tuesday night when Marshall hosts NAIA foe Rio Grande at 7:05 p.m.

Marshall leads the all-time series with the Red Storm 13-0. This is the third season Rio Grande and Marshall have matched up, with the school located just outside of Gallipolis, Ohio, which is across the Ohio River from Jones' home town of Point Pleasant, W.Va.

Tuesday is a "4-For-$40" game, where fans can get four tickets, four Hot Dogs, four popcorns and four Pepsi products for just $40. Call 1-800 THE HERD for information or go to www.HerdZone.com to order online.