Bailes leads Ohio over hometown Marshall

HUNTINGTON -- Former Huntington High star Erin Bailes was back in her hometown Saturday, scoring a game-high 18 points to lift Ohio University over Marshall, 55-48, in women's basketball at the Cam Henderson Center.

All of Bailes' points came from behind the three-point line, where she shot 6-for-8.

And, unfortunately for the Thundering Herd (5-5), most of those threes came at inopportune times.

One was to give Ohio (4-5) its first lead of the contest with less than a minute to go in the first half. One put the Bobcats back up by two after Marshall had regained the lead for the first time in the second half.

Another came with under three minutes to go in the game, following a Marshall turnover when the Herd had pulled within two points of the Bobcats.

Marshall coach Matt Daniel said a relatively simple concept could have been employed to slow Bailes down.

"You can guard her," Daniel said. "And we didn't. You're supposed to go six of eight when you're shooting horse shots in the gym by yourself, and that's basically what we were giving up. I really don't have an explanation for that other than, yeah, you can guard players like that."

Bailes said it just took a couple of shots, "And then, yeah, I was feeling it."

The fans in the Cam numbered a shade under 100, but Bailes said she was glad to come home and play in front of a Huntington crowd.

"I love playing in Huntington," she said. "And you don't get many fans in women's basketball, but to have some of those people come back out, some of the younger girls here who I used to play with, it felt really good to show them how I've been doing in person and not just let them read about it."

The loss is Marshall's fifth-straight to Ohio, though the game looked early on like it was headed for a much different outcome.

In the first four minutes, Marshall's Chukwuka Ezeigbo went 5-5 from the floor, outscoring Ohio 10-2 on her own.

Ezeigbo missed her first shot out of the first media timeout, and didn't find the bucket again for the rest of the game.

"It was very frustrating actually," Ezeigbo said. "I was on a run and all of a sudden my shots weren't going in. So I tried to focus on my defense since my shots weren't falling through."

Marshall was without starting point guard Norrisha Victrum for the first half. Victrum played all 20 minutes of the second frame. Daniel said Victrum was suspended for the first half for "a violation of team standards."

Shooting guard and MU leading scorer Shay Weaver played all 40 minutes of the contest, finishing with 13 points, just above her 11.8 points per game average. The Herd played nine of its 10 dressed players in the contest.

Free throw shooting for the team was much improved, with the Herd going 7-8 from the line.

Marshall next hosts Furman on Thursday, Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. at the Cam Henderson Center.