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MARSHALL SPORTS
Herd routs Pirates, 100-49
Marshall takes on East Carolina during the C-USA mens basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010, at the Cam Henderson Center.
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HUNTINGTON — Marshall University didn’t only win big Saturday night, the Thundering Herd tied a Conference USA men’s basketball record in the process.
Marshall hammered East Carolina, 100-49, a 51-point winning margin, that equaled the most lop-sided C-USA regular season game ever played between two league teams. Louisville had a 51-point win over East Carolina on Jan. 19, 2005.
C-USA’s record for all games involving league teams is 70 set by Memphis on Jan. 31, 2001, when the Tigers smashed Howard, 112-42.
More importantly, Marshall broke free of a five-game losing streak before a crowd of 5,603 spectators in Cam Henderson Center. Marshall pushed its record to 16-7 overall and 5-4 in the conference. East Carolina fell to 7-16 and 1-8.
With the triumph, coupled with Southern Miss winning at Houston, the Herd has sole possession of fifth place in the conference standings.
“Well, a new season, 1-0,” Marshall coach Donnie Jones said after the streak-buster.
Marshall won by more points than the opposition scored. Forward Tirrell Baines led the rout with 18 points and was one of four Marshall players with at least 15. Forward Tyler Wilkerson followed with 17. guard Chris Lutz scored 15 and center Hassan Whiteside also hit for 15.
Whiteside also had six rebounds and four blocked shots. Damier Pitts had seven assists.
The Herd blew out the Pirates with a 67-28 surge in the final 20 minutes that was the second-most ever scored in one half of a C-USA game. It was the fourth-highest scoring half in Herd records.
“It was big,” said Lutz after connecting on all four of his 3-point field goal attempts in the big half. “It’s going to help our confidence a lot.”
Lutz also had his first dunk in a Marshall uniform.
Baines was a major contributor in his best performance since Jan. 6 knee surgery and having some problems with medication.
The junior played for 16 minutes as one of six players from off the Herd bench who outscored the Pirates’ reserves, 42-10. Baines made seven of 10 shots, including the first 3-pointer of his career.
“I’m happy to be back in the flow of things,” Baines said.
East Carolina’s biggest downfall was its 25 percent shooting.
Brock Young’s shot from the lane put the Pirates ahead, 8-7, at 14:07 of the first half and coach Mack McCarthy’s team made eight foul shots before getting its next field goal. Erin Straughn’s turnaround, 25-foot 3-pointer beat the halftime buzzer and ended the drought.
The Pirates had only four field goals at halftime and trailed by 12 before it got worse.
“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,” Jones said.
Marshall’s lead reached 20 with 17:47 left to play, then the Herd used a 13-0 spree to take a 63-32 advantage with 11:28 remaining.
Jones cleared the bench, inserting non-scholarship players Noah Fischer and Bobby Horodyski with six minutes left and 3:22 to go respectively. About one minute after taking the court, Fischer tossed in a 3-point shot.
Antonio Haymon’s tip-in made it 100-47 and created a 53-point gap with 23 seconds left.
Marshall scored 100 points for the fourth time in the season, the first time in five C-USA seasons and the 143rd time in history.
Whiteside’s four blocked shots put him at 122 for the season. The school record is 148.
Young of the Pirates, the C-USA leader with 133 assists, had only two.
