Daniel era begins with win

HUNTINGTON -- The Matt Daniel era at Marshall started with a win in an exhibition contest against Concord University on Thursday night.

However, just because the Herd earned an 84-71 victory over the Mountain Lions, don't expect Daniel to be satisfied. He saw plenty of room for improvement on Thursday night.

Missed layups, missed screens and defensive breakdowns were rampant in the Herd's first on-court action under Daniel, but the first-year Marshall coach was happy to see his team play through the mistakes.

"One of the things that we taught them -- and you can see them nodding now -- you have to play through mistakes," Daniel said. "You're going to make mistakes. I made a million mistakes tonight."

The Herd finished with five players in double-figures and ended the contest with only seven turnovers -- both to his liking.

But Marshall also allowed Concord to shoot 50 percent from the floor, including nine 3-pointers with several coming in situations where the team was close to putting the game out of reach.

Instead, the Herd never finished off Concord -- even giving up an uncontested layup on the final play of the exhibition.

Daniel was not too pleased about it.

"I have no tolerance for the way the game ended, the last possession of the game," Daniel said. "None. On a made basket, on your home floor."

Orlandria Williams led Marshall with 15 points while Jasmine Shaw added 14 points and eight assists. Leandra King had 13 points while newcomer Norrisha Victrum netted 12 points. Suporia Dickens finished with a double-double -- 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Herd led by as many as 16 points late and the lead stayed in double-digits for much of the second half, but Concord stayed in the contest on account of two big scorers: Andrea Bertrand and Rachel Artrip.

Betrand finished the contest with 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds while Artrip finished 6-of-8 from 3-point range to add 20 points and nine rebounds.

Marshall's defense had trouble stopping Bertrand early in the contest, and Bertrand's success helped keep the Mountain Lions close early.

Bertrand's success plus consecutive 3-pointers by Artrip pulled Concord within one at 33-32 with 3:50 left in the first half.

However, the Herd finished the half on a 9-0 run, capped by King's three-point play with 53 seconds left before the break, to take a 42-32 lead into the locker room.

"Defensively, we came out in the first half, they had 32 points and two kids (Bertrand and Artrip) had 28," Daniel said. "We made an adjustment and those two kids had six apiece the second half. We're going to adjust."

Marshall returns to action at 2 p.m. on Sunday when the Herd takes on Kentucky State in the final exhibition of the season at Cam Henderson Center.