Conference-USA fans received a great match-up to watch this week when Middle Tennessee State basketball hosted the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Thursday night saw the balanced Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State receive a challenge from the high-octane Marshall Thundering Herd. The game was highly entertaining, but Middle Tennessee came out on top.
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Early on saw MTSU used great ball movement to gain an early 12-9 lead over Marshall. They would maintain a lead through much of the first 10 minutes, as the Herd played poorly inside. The Blue Raiders grabbed seven offense boards in that time span and out-rebounded UM 30-11 in the first half.
Neither team was careful with the ball (16 combined turnovers in the 1st half), but Middle Tennessee State would take a 37-29 lead into halftime. Arkansas transfer and current Blue Raider Jacorey Williams led all scorers with 10 points and five boards in the first half Marshall’s Ryan Taylor led the Herd with eight points and four rebounds.
Middle Tennessee would increase the lead to 10 early in the second half and continued to out-rebound the less-interested Thundering Herd. Marshall kept firing, but it looked like the Blue Raiders’ greater patience eventually wore down their opponents. They absolutely crushed the rebounding margin, 58-25, and held Marshall to just 5-of-19 from deep.
Williams led all scorers with 16 points and 11 rebounds overall. Sharpshooter Giddy Potts had 14 points and Brandon Walters chipped in 11. Taylor led Marshall with 12 points and eight rebounds, but got help from and Stevie Browning’s 11 points and Jon Elmore’s 10. Those three scored 33, but usually combine for 53. That means credit is due to MTSU for never letting the visiting Herd speed the game up.
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Overall, this was an impressive win for MTSU. Marshall had been 4-0 in the Conference USA until tonight and had scored more than 80 points in all their conference victories. The Thundering Herd will try and rebound against UAB, who just picked up a solid home win over Western Kentucky. Middle Tennessee State will take their 4-0 record and host that same WKU squad in Murfreesboro on Saturday. Both of these teams should deserve NCAA Tournament consideration in March.