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SPORTS
Herd falls flat at home
Marshall's Damier Pitts drives against Quincy Taylor of UAB during the C-USA basketball game on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, at the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington. UAB won 56-49.
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HUNTINGTON -- Marshall University's key statistics Wednesday night were shooting totals.
Numbers such as:
Dre Kane 4-for-13.
Damier Pitts 4-for-12.
Rob Goff 1-for-5.
Shaq Johnson 2-for-6.
Only Dennis Tinnon at 6-for-10 shot the basketball decently, and he made four of his in the opening minutes.
UAB seized full advantage of Marshall's shooting woes, and although the Blazers didn't have a great shooting performance, they defeated the Thundering Herd, 56-49, before a Cam Henderson Center men's basketball turnout of 5,653 spectators.
"We were inept offensively," Marshall head coach Tom Herrion said.
Marshall's three-game losing streak puts the Herd at 13-7 overall and 4-2 in Conference USA.
In other conference action Wednesday, Memphis rocked Rice and moved into a first-place with Southern Miss at 5-1. Tulsa beat UCF, leaving the Golden Hurricane and Knights tied for third place at 5-2.
UAB (7-12 for the season) improved to 2-4 in the conference, and all its games were close.
"I don't think Marshall should feel bad about losing to us," said UAB head coach Mike Davis. "Don't look at our record and feel Marshall is not a good team, because they are."
Marshall's 51 points was its low for the season. It's 35.2 percent field goal shooting wasn't its worst, but it was close.
The Herd also missed 10 of 17 free throw attempts.
Still, UAB wasn't able to pull comfortably ahead until taking a 54-44 lead with 4:14 left to play.
Marshall pulled within 54-49 on Tinnon's dunk with 2:36 remaining. Consecutive turnovers committed by Kane in the final 2:06, one on a charging foul, foiled the Herd's chances.
"From the get-go, we've got to come ready to go," Tinnon said. "I guess they wanted it more than we did."
Tinnon, who scored the first eight Herd points of the game, picked up his second foul and watched the remainder of the half from the bench. He finished the day with 12 points and seven rebounds. Kane also had 12 points along with six rebounds and seven assists.
Pitts scored 10.
UAB's Cameron Moore, the preseason choice for conference player of the year, tossed in 21 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
Marshall packs its bags for a Saturday game at Memphis, which won Wednesday in FedExForum against Rice, 73-49. The 9 p.m. contest will be televised on WSAZ and Comcast Sports South.
