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SPORTS
Whiteside leads MU over UCF
Marshall forward Hassan Whiteside (21) blocks a shot against Brescia earlier this season. The Herd's freshman phenom did it again Wednesday night, leading MU to a road win at UCF.
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Marshall University had several heroes Wednesday night in a Conference USA men’s basketball victory at UCF.
Marshall, now 14-2 for the season, improved to 3-0 in the conference with an 81-75 victory at UCF Arena where several fan promotions and a a halftime performance by Blue Man Group helped produce a crowd of 9.460, the second-largest in school history. UCF is 9-7 overall and 1-1 in C-USA.
Thundering Herd freshman 7-footer Hassan Whiteside recorded his second triple-double of the season — the second in school history — and the 11th ever in C-USA with 14 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.
Whiteside leads the nation with 5.4 blocks per game.
“Our guards did a great job of forcing their guards into the lane,” Whiteside said. “We played a good hard defense all night.”
“He was a one-man zone in there,” Marshall coach Donnie Jones said.
Chris Lutz scored a season-high 21 points and made six of eight 3-point shots to to lead five Marshall players in double figures. Tyler Wilkerson and Shaq Johnson both scored 14 and Dago Pena added 12.
Nigel Spikes, who was 7-for-17 shooting foul shots before the game, sank six in a row while also grabbing seven rebounds.
Spikes is from Fort Lauderdale and was one of five Floridians on the court for Marshall. His mother, Towana Sanders, watched him play in college for the first time, Jones said.
Marshall won without having starting point guard Damier Pitts (one-game suspension), forward Tirrell Baines (knee surgery) and forward Antonio Haymon (abdominal infection. Pitts sat out because of an unspecified violation of team rules and is scheduled to return for a Saturday home game against Tulane, which beat Rice on Wednesday, 72-58.
The Herd has back-to-back C-USA road wins for the first time since joining in 2005.
“It was a great team effort,” Jones said. “I’m proud of guys for fighting hard in a tough place to play.”
Marshall committed 10 of its 16 turnovers in the first half and trailed by nine before falling into a 12-point deficit and battling back for its fifth consecutive win.
Johnson’s layup tied the game with 11:39 to play.
Lutz made three consecutive 3-point shots that wiped out the deficit and game the Herd a 66-59 lead with less than eight minutes remaining.
UCF freshman guard Marcus Jordan, the son of basketball legend Michael Jordan, fired in 19 points. Jordan turned a Marshall turnover into a three-point play then drove for a basket and made another free throw that put the Knights within 76-73 with 38 seconds to go.
Whiteside tossed in four consecutive free throws and Lutz made one of two in the final 29 seconds.
Marshall had a good shooting night, hitting 52.1 percent from the field and was 10-for-16 on 3-pointers. UCF, which shot 47 percent, was just 4-for-7 at the foul line while Marshall made 21 of 30.
The Herd was plus-11 in rebounds.
