10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

Herd comeback falls short against Pitt 112-106

PITTSBURGH, PA – With just over 14 minutes left Marshall found itself trailing Pittsburgh by 29 points. At that point, it seemed all that was left to do was for Marshall warm up the buses and head back to Huntington. But Marshall started to slowly chip away at the deficit and over the next 12:48 Marshall outscored Pitt 49-27 and had closed the gap to just seven points.

However, Marshall could not overcome a putrid first half of basketball and ultimately fell to Pitt 112-106.

“We’ve had a couple of games now, that we just seemed like we weren’t ready to play and that’s something we’ll address. They’re very skilled and able to come back on a team 29 down and really with a minute it’s a five point game and at that point its anybody’s game,” said Coach Dan D’Antoni.

C.J. Burks scored a career-high 25 points to help lead Marshall’s furious second half comeback attempt. Ryan Taylor, who picked up his third and fourth personal fouls within the first minute of the second half, went on to score 20 of his 22 points in the second half. Taylor also pulled down 11 rebounds, registering his 30th career double-double.

The Herd’s comeback was not a barrage of outside shots, rather Marshall attacked the basket and was able to free-throw line 23 times. Marshall was 22-of-23 from the foul line and shot 60 percent from the field. The Herd also outrebounded Pitt in the second half 22-13.

“Basketball is a game of energy and when you take all those three’s we take, you have to have energy. We’ll check all the plugs and kick all the tires and see if we can’t get it better. We’re playing real good and all we got to do is playing good is one part of the game but the other part is learning how to win good.”

The second 20 minutes was a far cry from the first half in which the Herd looked overmatched by an obviously bigger Panther team.

Pitt drained 9-of-17 three-point attempts on its way to a season high 58 first half points and a 20-point halftime lead.

While the Panthers shot 52 percent from the field in the first half, Marshall was converted 39 percent of its field goal opportunities.

Things didn’t get any better for the Herd at the start of the second half as Pitt came out of the locker room and scored the first six points of the second half, while Ryan Taylor picked up his third and fourth personal fouls less than a minute into the period.

Stevie Browning finished the game with 22 points while Jon Elmore scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half. Elmore was just 1-for-6 shooting with 2 points in the first half.

Leading scorers Jamel Artis and Michael Young who each scored 30 points paced Pittsburgh. Sheldon Jeter finished with a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

The Herd remains winless on the road this season and hopes to change its fortunes away from the Cam Henderson Center this weekend when it begins conference play. The Herd faces FIU Saturday at 1 p.m. and tangles with FAU Monday at 7 p.m.





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