EL PASO, TX— The Thundering Herd trailed by two points at halftime but Old Dominion University pulled away in the second half and ended Marshall’s season 73-58 in the second round of the Conference USA Tournament.
Aaron Bacote led the Monarchs with 25 points and eight rebounds and both offensives struggled throughout the game. Dimitri Batten added 13 points for ODU, which outrebounded The Herd 39-26.
“We’re disappointed that our season comes to an end today in El Paso. Clearly for us, we were non-existent defensively in the second half with no quality stops, especially to start the second half,” said coach Tom Herrion.
ODU outscored The Herd 49-36 in the second half with Marshall’s struggling offense forcing Marshall to make stops every time down the floor. It’s something Herd fans have grown accustomed to seeing throughout the season.
“We have been like this for a while. We are just so challenged. We leave so many points at the foul line, and that puts so much pressure on your defense to get every stop,” said Herrion.
Marshall was 11-of-22 at the foul line and even worse beyond the arch. The Herd was just 5-for-20 from three-point range.
“We’ll go back and look at it at some point here. Layups, stick backs, free throws, just empty possessions guys,” assessed Herrrion. “We had 15 turnovers, which is uncharacteristic for our club. We’re usually a good ball security team. But we had so many empty possessions and If you don’t get quality stops to start the second half, it’s a bad formula to be sure.”
Kareem Canty led Marshall with 17 points but was only 1-of-8 on three-point attempts. Shawn Smith added 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Marshall concludes the season 11-22 and is just 24-41 in the last two seasons.