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SPORTS
Herd looking to bounce back vs. Rice
HUNTINGTON -- The good news for Conference USA women's basketball teams coming to Huntington is the unseasonably dry weather throughout much of the season.
The bad news for the Marshall University women's team is some dry spells of its own.
Heading into a 7 p.m., Thursday, contest with Rice in Cam Henderson Center the Thundering Herd has lost five games in a row with some major offensiive lapses each time.
The string of offensive futility began in a 55-53 loss to SMU. Marshall led for much of the contest, but had a scoreless string and SMU pulled away by seven.
Next, it was the annual battle with West Virginia, a 69-57 loss. Marshall cut the Mountaineers' lead to one before allowing a 14-0 run that put the game out of reach.
The next matchup was a home date with UCF which began promising, but ended with a 55-44 loss.
Marshall led UCF, 21-11, before a near seven-minute drought allowed UCF to tie the game going into halftime. In the final 12 minutes, Marshall made just five off 22 shots and UCF won, 55-44.
The last two games -- both road losses -- had similar qualities of trouble ending the first half and problems beginning the second half. Memphis and Tulane are two of the better teams in C-USA, but Marshall was up on each in the first half, only to see things fall apart offensively.
Against Memphis, Marshall led 37-28 following a 3-pointer by Shay Weaver, and a pair of late baskets pulled the Tigers within five before a 13-4 run to open the second half pushed the Tigers ahead for good in a 71-58 loss for the Herd.
The same fate came for the Herd against Tulane, only on a much-larger scale.
A Weaver 3-pointer gave Marshall a 22-15 lead, and Tulane scored the final 16 points of the first half to ignite a 31-4 run that gave the Green Wave a 68-52 victory.
In that game, Marshall went more than 15 minutes of game time with just one field goal and four points.
While much of the problem has been on the offensive end, the defensive end has not done its part either.
When Marshall was successful this season, the defense picked up the offense by forcing turnovers that led to transition opportunities. That has not happened lately, with the Herd forcing just 13 turnovers a game its last three times out -- a contrast to the 21 turnovers per game the Herd forced in the first 16 games.
On Thursday, Marshall will be taking on one of C-USA's top point guards in Rice's D'Frantz Smart, the Owls' all-time assist leader who does not turn the ball over much.
The Owls also have Jessica Kuster averaging a double-double with 17.3 points and 11.3 rebounds per game.
Marshall's top scoring averages belong to Lateidra Elliott (7.6), Jasmine Shaw (7.3) and Erica Woods (7.1). Woods leads the team with 6.2 rebounds per game.
