Marshall saw Richmond (9-1) bounce back from its only loss of the season last week at Towson with a 73.1 percent shooting first half, 19-of-26. They also shot 66.7 percent from three (4-of-6) and out-rebounded the Herd, 12-to-7. Marshall hit only 5-of-16 (31.3 percent), missed its only three and the ball over 15 times in the first half alone.
"I thought in the first half they were playing exceptionally well and we had no answers," said MU head coach Royce Chadwick. "We tried a couple of different defenses, but nothing was working." Chadwick burned three of his five timeouts in the first. "If we are going to be a championship team, we are going to have to find a way to get a stop, find a way to play behind a hot team and keep them within running down distance when they come out of their state we'll have a chance to catch them."
Alyssa Hammond put up this shot over Richmond's Augustina Zygaite in the first half Saturday. photo by Greg Perry/HI staff
Richmond did cool in the second half, hitting just 36 percent (9-of-25) while Marshall improved to 41 percent (12-of-29), but by then the Spiders had moved the lead out to plus-35 points at 57-22, with 15:32 left on the clock at the first media timeout of the second half. "It was a huge mountain to climb in the second half," said Chadwick, who saw his team fall to 6-4 on the year. "The way we came out in the second half, I was proud of the effort but not the execution."
Marshall was once again led by the threesome of Tynikki Crook (13 points, 5 rebounds), Chantelle Handy (11 points, 7 rebounds) and Alyssa Hammond (11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals). But that group, while scoring 35 of the Herd's total of 49 points, also had 11 of the 20 turnovers in the game. Marshall's bench only scored 14 points on the night.
Casey Baker dribbled past Richmond's Abby Oliver in the first half of The Herd's 74-49 loss to the Spiders on Saturday. photo by Greg Perry/HI staff
Richmond was led by Johanna McKnight, with 14 points and six rebounds. The Spiders' bench contributed 31 points in the contest, as the team shot 55 percent in the contest (28-for-51), 6-of-12 from three and out-rebounded the Herd 32-26.
Marshall will take a Christmas break from today until Dec. 26, and will practice that night. Two practices for the Herd on the 27th, then the team will fly to College Park, Maryland for the Terrapin Classic at the University of Maryland. Marshall will face the SEC's undefeated Bulldogs of Mississippi State, then either the hosts or UNC-Asheville on Dec. 30. Conference play starts Jan. 3 at East Carolina and the next six games are away from the Henderson Center, including the Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic against West Virginia, a doubleheader with the men on Jan. 14 at the Charleston (W.Va.) Civic Center. The next home game is Jan. 18 with the Pirates of ECU.