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SPORTS
Blazers burn the Herd
Marshall's Tyler Wilkerson drives the ball against Howard Crawford of UAB during the C-USA mens basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, at the Cam Henderson Center.
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HUNTINGTON — Anyone who thought Marshall University’s run through Conference USA would be easy was wrong.
It’s a tough conference where contending teams need to protect their home-court advantage while hoping to scratch out some road wins. That’s why UAB was feeling fortunate about a 61-59 victory Saturday night at Marshall.
“It’s not over,” UAB coach Mike Davis said about the 16-game conference season. “A lot of people are going to come here and lose. And, they’re (Marshall) going to go on the road and win.”
The C-USA showdown for a share of first place was intense and Marshall’s season-best Cam Henderson Center crowd of 8,111 spectators cheered the home team wildly at times. The crowd also groaned and booed the officials on other occasions.
One play that really riled up the crowd was in the final minute with the score 59-59.
UAB forward Howard Crawford’s jump shot missed. George Drake of the Blazers attempted to save the rebound from going out of bounds by firing the ball off Marshall guard Damier Pitts. UAB was awarded possession with 38 seconds remaining and the crowd obviously thought it was a bad call.
Aaron Johnson’s basket with seven seconds to go was the winner.
“I thought it was out on him,” Pitts said. “But we can’t dwell on one play.”
UAB (17-2) is tied for first place with Tulsa (16-3) at 5-0 in C-USA. Marshall , 15-4 overall, slipped to 4-1 in the conference and is in a tie with Memphis and UTEP.
The Thundering Herd lost at home for the first time and has dropped two in a row for the first time in the season. Attendance was the most for a game since a Memphis visit on Jan. 12, 2008, drew a sell-out of 9,043. Memphis returns Wednesday when another large crowd is anticipated.
Marshall declared it a “White Out” and encourages its fans to wear white for the 8 p.m. telecast on the CBS College Sports Network.
Saturday’s game was shown by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast.
Marshall got out of the gate slow and had only 22 points at halftime when it trailed, 27-22. The Herd’s 59 points was a season-low. The previous low was set earlier in the week against West Virginia in a 68-60 defeat.
“We did a better job in the second half but we didn’t play with that edge that we usually play with,” Marshall coach Donnie Jones said. “We need to put that West Virginia game behind us emotionally.”
Forward Tyler Wilkeson’s 18 points was high for Marshall and he also had five rebounds and four blocked shots. Pitts had 13 points and five assists.
Hassan Whiteside, Herd’s 7-foot freshman center, scored 11, collected 13 rebounds and blocked five shots to set a school season record of 102. Omar Roland held the record with 101 in the 1989-90 season.
Herd guards Shaq Johnson and Chris Lutz, who were averaging 11.8 and 8.3 points respectively, combined to make only 4 of 15 shots. Johnson had six points and Lutz four.
“It’s important for us to have Shaquille Johnson playing well, but he had a tough night. He played with heart,” Jones said. “We didn’t get much from him or Chris Lutz tonight scoring wise and that makes it really hard.”
Crawford had 19 points and eight rebounds for the Blazers. Johnson scored 11 and Jamarr Sanders added 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
UAB spurted to a 40-33 lead with 14:17 left in the game and the Herd tied it at 42-42 on Wilkerson’s free throws with 9:36 remaining.
Johnson’s drive for a basket gave Marshall a 55-54 edge with 4:04 to go. Marshall was called for fouls on the next three UAB possessions and the Blazers regained the advantage at the free throw line.
Wilkerson made a steal and scored as Marshall tied it again 59-59 with 1:41 left to play.
Then UAB delivered the final blow by Johnson, who lofted a high shot that eluded Whiteside’s long arms. Pitts said he saw Whiteside right there with his hand up and Johnson made a great shot.
“We took the lead there; we just had to get stops,” Jones said. “We struggled down the stretch.”
Neither UAB (37.5 percent) nor Marshall (38.9 percent) had a good shooting night, and free throws figured in the outcome. Forty-five fouls were called.
The Blazers were 22 of 31 at the foul line while the Herd made 16 of 27.
Johnson’s winning basket was the only UAB field goal in the final five minutes.
Marshall’s 10 blocked shots to run its season total to 154, another school record.
