— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall hopes to remove the taste of last weekend’s 35-point loss at then-No. 6 Purdue when it welcomes South Carolina State for what marks the Herd’s fifth home game at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside Cam Henderson Center.
The matchup can be seen on ESPN+.
Marshall was shutdown by Purdue last Saturday when the Boilermakers held the Herd to 30 percent shooting from the field and a dismal 4 of 32 from three-point range. Marshall’s shooting struggles even carried over to the charity stripe, with the Herd cashing in on only 9-of-17 free throws in the 80-45 setback — the team’s second loss this season.
“We didn’t play our best in terms of shooting,” Marshall head coach Cornelius Jackson said after the game. “We competed. We tied them on the boards for a long part of the game, and were leading. Obviously we have to make shots and take care of the basketball. When you shoot the basketball like we did this afternoon and turn the ball over 19 times with six assists, it’s a recipe for disaster.”
Marshall (3-2) now gets set to entertain a South Carolina State team that’s yielded positive results of late. The Bulldogs (4-3) won two in a row on consecutive days over the weekend, first defeating Alabama A&M, 82-70, and then knocking off IU Indianapolis, 72-62.
The Bulldogs suffered losses to South Carolina, Jacksonville and Bethune-Cookman earlier this month.
Longtime WVU assistant Erik Martin is in his third season as head coach at SCSU and has a 23-47 record. The Bulldogs upped their win total from five in Martin’s first season to 14 last year.
The Bulldogs’ top player is 6-foot-11 sophomore Drayton Jones, who is averaging 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds.
Graduate guard Omar Croskey averages 10 points.
The Herd and Bulldogs have met twice previously, splitting those two games. This is their first matchup in 11 years.
After Wednesday’s game, Marshall heads back on the road for Saturday’s 8 p.m. matchup at former Conference USA rival Western Kentucky.