HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—Cold shooting and losing the battle along the boards led to Marshall’s downfall in a 68-62 loss to UAB Thursday night.
“It’s pretty simple. We were pummeled on the glass. We don’t finish around the basket and we leave too many points on the foul line,” admitted Coach Tom Herrion.
At the half, The Herd was being outrebounded 33-17 and was a miserable 0-for-12 from outside but somehow trailed just 30-29. However, the abysmal shooting and lack of rebounding eventually caught up with The Herd as UAB pulled away for the victory.
“We played really, really hard and we’re supposed to. You have to finish around the basket and we don’t finish. Our execution was very good, but I felt we settled for too many jump shots. We did a nice job at adjusting in the second half,” said Herrion.
“Our defense was more than good enough to win the game. Absolutely more than good enough to win the game, but blocking out and limiting second and third chance points is part of defense.
“Obviously, it is discouraging. Those who were there (at practice) on Monday know that the ingredient to beating UAB was rebounding the basketball. We did not execute that. We did not transfer that. Hitting our guys over the head day in and day out didn’t transfer into getting the job done from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday night. Plain and simple.”
Marshall is now tied for 14th place with ECU in the 16-team Conference USA, just ahead of lowly Rice.