— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Huntington will be the scene of excitement Saturday afternoon in the vicinity of 3rd Avenue and 18th Street.
That is the location of the Cam Henderson Center, where Marshall will host Illinois State in the championship of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
The matchup starts at 3 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
Marshall (27-9) earned its spot in the title game by winning Wednesday at Arkansas State, 69-62 — the second victory in as many tries for the Thundering Herd against the Red Wolves this season.
Illinois State also picked up a Wednesday road win in a semifinal, with its 67-60 triumph at South Dakota.
Second-year Marshall head coach Juli Fulks says things have come together quite well for the Herd throughout two weeks of postseason play.
“Three years ago, I got to win the National Championship (in NCAA Division III at Transylvania) on this day,” Fulks said Wednesday night. “April 1st is a good day for me and I’m glad we get to keep it that way. Not many times do you get to end with a win, so here we go, because we have a chance to end on a win and [send] all the seniors out the right way.”
Illinois State (24-13) won 13 of 20 games within the Missouri Valley Conference before a five-point overtime loss to Evansville in a conference tournament semifinal erased any hope for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The Redbirds are led by ninth-year head coach Kristen Gillespie, who has a 181-108 record with the program.
In its seven-point victory at South Dakota, Illinois State shot 25 for 51 from the field and made 7-of-16 attempts from three-point range.
Six-foot-1 forward Doneelah Washington led the way with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. Washington is the team’s most productive player with averages of 17.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.7 blocked shots, while shooting just south of 51 percent from the field.
Addison Martin follows with an average of 12.5 points, while Trista Fayta is a third double-figure scorer at 11.9. Martin, a 6-1 forward, and Fayta, a 5-8 guard, scored 14 apiece in the most recent contest.
Timaya Lewis-Eutsey continues to lead Marshall in just about every way imaginable and has hardly slowed up since being named Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year. The VCU transfer poured in 31 points Wednesday and leads the team with an average of 19.8.
Fellow seniors Meredith Maier and Peyton Ilderton average 9.4 and 9.3, points, respectively.
Maier, who starred at Fairmont Senior High School, and Ilderton, a state champion at Logan, will be playing their final collegiate contests after sticking with the Herd for the entirety of their careers and playing for three different head coaches.
Timberlyn Yeast is Marshall’s top rebounder with an average of 5.1.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Fulks said. “The most important thing is that they’re willing to show up. This group competes. There’s a lot of ways to approach the postseason. The first thing we all said is that we chose this. We love playing, they love competing and we’ve responded every time.”
This will only be the third meeting between the two programs. Illinois State won both previous matchups, which were played in 1975.