Marshall edges Jackson State, 71-61

Freshman Phil Bledsoe (Wheeling, W.Va.) fires a shot from the outside during a Marshall home game.

Marshall's two seniors didn't have the best night of their careers as Ryan Taylor had six more fouls than he had points while Stevie Browning had more turnovers than points, giving the ball away four times while scoring just two points. 

But, despite the uncharacteristically poor play from two of the Herd's senior leaders Marshall managed to pull out a 71-61 win over the Jackson State Tigers for the Herd's first 4-0 start since 2011 when the team started 5-0. With Browning and Taylor off their game coach, Dan Dantoni turned to a couple of freshman Ky're Allison and Phil Bledsoe and the duo managed to pick up their older classmates' slack quite nicely as they combined for 13 points, six rebounds, and a steal while committing zero turnovers. 

It was the type of slowed down defensive minded game Marshall would have lost last season when the Herd was 0-7 in games when it scored less than 75 points. 

"They held the ball," Dantoni said. "They held it and let it run down to 12 seconds or less every possession. They wanted to play slow, this is why we stressed defense all offseason because now we can win games played in all types of ways." 

Jackson State led Marshall 35-34 at halftime thanks to the hot shooting of Paris Collins and Edric Dennis, a guard combo that terrorized the Herd defense inside and out as Dennis finished around the rim on several of his nine field goals while Collins provided the long ball connecting on five of eight threes. The pair finished 21 and 20 points respectively, but no other Tiger scored more than eight and the Herd bench outgunned Jackson State's in 21-8. 

The lead changed several times as both teams struggled to pull away until Marshall managed to grab a nine-point lead with 6:40 remaining in the ball game. The lead would be short-lived however as Taylor would be whistled for his fourth foul on the Tigers ensuing possession. Unhappy with the call Taylor voiced his frustrations to the officials and was saddled with a pair of technical fouls to give the senior the unwanted distinction of registering six fouls. In college players are disqualified after five and Jackson State converted the free throws, scoring six points on a single possession to get the lead back down to three. 

However, that would be as close as the Tigers would get the rest of the way thanks to a couple of nifty buckets from Allison and a pair of clutch free throws by Bledsoe that gave the Herd a 63-57 lead with 4:30 left to play. From there Terrance Thompson and Jon Elmore would take control of the game scoring Marshall's final eight points of the game. 

Thompson poured in 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds to pace the Marshall starters while Elmore added 20 of his own to go with seven assists. The junior guard did have seven turnovers, however, in a sloppy game for Herd ball handlers as Marshall turned it over 16 times on the night. 

The Herd will now hit the road for the first time this season traveling to Ohio State to take on a Buckeyes team that is currently 4-0 after defeating Western Carolina 66-38. Ohio State will face Jackson State on Wednesday before getting the Herd on Black Friday at 7 p.m.