Herd Basketball gets off to good starts

Both the Marshall Men's and Women's team got off to winning starts.

This weekend both the Marshall Men's and Women's basketball teams tipped off the 2016 season with wins. 

The women got things started first on Friday with a road win against Big Ten member Illinois. It was the women's first win against a "Power 5" conference opponent since 2007 when the Herd beat Missouri. The 55-53 victory went down to the final seconds when Shayna Gore blocked an Illini three-point attempt at the buzzer to preserve the win. Gore also led Marshall with 29 points and six rebounds. 

The men followed up the impressive performance by the ladies with an 81-69 win over North Carolina Central. A big question for the men's team coming into this season was how would the Herd replace All-Conference big man James Kelly. Well, Terrance Thompson might have answered that question. The sophomore led Marshall by producing a new career high in points with 20 and tying a career high in rebounds with 10 for the first double-double of his college career. Thompson was also paramount to the Herd's defensive efforts as he altered several shots inside and provided excellent help defense on traps that lead to several Central turnovers. 

Thompson was joined in double figures by junior Jon Elmore (17) as well as seniors Stevie Browning (16) and Ryan Taylor (12). Taylor also led the Herd in assists with five. Marshall held just a three-point advantaged, 35-32 at halftime, but used a couple of second half runs to balloon its led to as many as 16 before the Eagles cut it back down to single digits. A technical foul against Central would then allow Marshall to stretch its led back into double figures and finally put the game away. 

Coach Dan Dantoni tinkered with his lineup some as all five starters weren't on the floor together all that much until the game's second half. Eight players say the floor and all played at least 12 minutes. The Herd shot poorly from the floor for most of the game's early going but a good shooting second half improved the overall percentage to 47% by the games end, however, Marshall still shot just 31% from three point range. 

The real difference, however, was at the charity stripe. The Herd converted 17-25 free throws (68%) while the Eagles made just 8-17 (47%), both teams turned the ball over 13 times and rebounds were just 41-40 in favor of Marshall. The Herd will return to action in the Cam Henderson Center on Wednesday against Moorehead State.