— By Bill Cornwell
Before Marshall steps outside of Sun Belt Conference play to welcome a nationally-ranked foe, the Herd welcomes Southern Mississippi to the Henderson Center for a 7 p.m. tip Wednesday.
The contest will be carried by ESPN+.
Both teams enter off a victory Saturday. Marshall (14-8, 6-4) won at Arkansas State 70-61, while the Golden Eagles (12-12, 6-6) brought an end to a five-game losing streak by knocking off James Madison, 70-60.
Southern Miss alum Jay Ladner is in his seventh season leading the Golden Eagles and has compiled a 88-123 record during his tenure in Hattiesburg.
Marshall’s top defensive task Wednesday will be slowing junior forward Tylik Weeks, the Sun Belt’s third-leading scorer at 17.8 points per game. Coming off a 28-point performance against the Dukes, Weeks has 20 or more points in 10 contests this season.
“He’s a matchup problem, because he’s playing the four [power forward], but he’s really a guard,” Marshall head coach Corny Jackson said. “He’s crafty and gets to the free throw line a lot. He shoots about seven free throws a game and he takes the majority of their shots. We have to make him score over us and not around us.”
Junior guard Isaac Taveras is the only other Golden Eagle averaging double-figure scoring at 15.8 points.
Djahi Binet tops Southern Miss in rebounding with an average of 7.3, while Weeks and Taveras both average north of six boards.
Southern Miss has struggled mightily from the perimeter, hitting three-pointers at only a 28.6 percent clip.
Marshall got great contributions off the bench against the Red Wolves. Wilson Dubinsky scored 23 points and Shamarrie Hugie added 17 to provide an offensive spark and then some.
Guard Noah Otshudi was the lone Herd starter in double figures with 12 points.
Otshudi (14 ppg), Jalen Speer (14.3) and Wyatt Fricks (14.1) pace a balanced scoring attack, while Matt Van Komen is the leading rebounder at 7.6.
Van Komen is also sixth in the nation with 58 shot blocks.
Speer is also making waves with his playmaking and his 125 assists this season lead the Sun Belt and are good for 31st nationally.
As a team, Marshall leads the Sun Belt in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.38), assists per game (17), blocks per game (5.7), three-point field goal percentage (36.8) and made threes per game (10.2).
Marshall has won 17 of 29 previous matchups with Southern Miss, including nine straight in Huntington.
On Saturday, Marshall welcomes Miami Ohio, which enters its Tuesday contest with Buffalo one of two remaining unbeaten teams in Division I. The RedHawks (22-0) will be in Huntington for a 4 p.m. contest as part of the Mid-American Conference-Sun Belt Challenge.