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SPORTS
MU women hit the road
HUNTINGTON — The road to Conference USA supremacy certainly isn’t an easy one.
Just ask Marshall’s women’s basketball team.
In the midst of their toughest stretch of the season and a three-game losing streak, the Herd women hit the road against arguably the best two teams in Conference USA this week, starting with Thursday’s 8 p.m. contest against Memphis at Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
Marshall’s struggles have been relegated to the offensive end of the court over the last three games — especially in the second half where the team has been under 27 percent from the floor in those three losses against SMU, West Virginia and UCF.
For Marshall women’s basketball coach Royce Chadwick, it all comes down to execution and finishing around the basket.
“Offensively, we lack a lot of execution,” Chadwick said. “A lot of times (against UCF), we had open post players and just didn’t see them.”
Marshall’s defense has carried the team throughout the early season success that the team saw — especially against an opponent’s top target.
However, the defense let down on UCF’s Gevenia Carter during Sunday’s 55-44 loss, allowing one of the Knights’ top threats to set a career-high with 28 points.
The Herd will have to get that corrected against Memphis (14-4, 4-1), which boasts of Brittany Carter — the preseason Conference USA Player of the Year.
Carter was named a Lowe’s Senior CLASS award finalist on Wednesday and comes into the contest averaging 16.2 points per game.
She is complemented by Jasmine Lee, who is adding 15.3 points per outing. Together, they are one of the most dangerous tandems in Conference USA.
Marshall (12-6, 3-2 Conference USA) will have to do a much better job defending this duo than they did the duo of Carter and Aisha Patrick of UCF.
While Patrick was held to just six points, Carter’s 28 more than made up for it in a low-scoring affair.
One good sign for the Herd is that guards Alaya Mitchell and Shay Weaver were aggressive in getting to the basket. However, that was trumped by the absence of Alyse Poindexter down low as Poindexter fell victim to foul trouble throughout.
To get a big road win against Memphis, the Herd will need all of its 14-man rotation making contributions — something that has been lacking during the losing streak.
“We don’t have an easy schedule up ahead,” Mitchell said. “Coaches have told us that it’s only going to get harder. We just have to go out and...execute and play hard. We have a lot of tough teams coming up on the road.”
Marshall is being led by Jasmine Shaw, who is averaging 7.7 points per game and joined Weaver in making her first start of the year against UCF. Lateidra Elliott (7.3) and Erica Woods (7.0) are also among the team leaders, which features nine players averaging at least 4.3 points per game or more.
Woods leads the team with 6.4 rebounds per game.
Following this contest, the Herd women head to New Orleans where they will take on Tulane at noon on Sunday at Fogelman Arena.
