March 1, 2008

Box Score

HOUSTON - Casey Baker and Kizzy Hart each recorded career-highs in scoring to lead the Thundering Herd to a 78-74 win in its final regular season game against Houston on Saturday afternoon.

Baker scored 28 points, the most a Marshall player has notched this season. Of that total, 25 came in the second half. She also tallied six assists, five steals and five rebounds. Kizzy Hart continued her success in Texas, scoring a career-high 27 while notching five rebounds. She hit a career-high six three-pointers.

Marshall scorched the nets in the second half, shooting 78.3% from the field.

With the win, Marshall finishes the regular season with a record of 15-15 and 7-9 in C-USA while Houston has an identical 15-15 record, but was 9-7 in conference play.

Saturday's opening half at Houston was practically a carbon copy of Thursday's contest against Rice. The Herd found itself leading or tied through the first 15 minutes of the half before a late Cougar run would give them a 34-29 halftime lead.

Marshall led by as many as eight points, 17-9, just over six minutes into the game. After a Twiggy McIntyre trey cut the Marshall lead to three with seven minutes remaining before a jumper by Kendra King put the Herd back up by five at the 6:50 mark.

From that point on, the Houston defense held Marshall to just three points while scoring 13 of their own to go up by five. The Cougars grabbed their first lead of the game match on McIntyre's third three-pointer of the half with five minutes remaining before five late points from Tye Jackson increased the Cougar lead.

Kizzy Hart, who has averaged 23.33 points in the first three games in the state of Texas this season, continued her dominance in the state, scoring a game-high 16 points in the first stanza. The Herd tallied seven blocks in the opening half, tying its season high set on the road at Memphis earlier in the season. Four of those came from Tynikki Crook, tying her career high.

After Houston finished the first half on a 13-3 run, the Herd opened up strong in the second half. Houston scored the first bucket of the half, before a 7-0 Marshall run would knot the game at 36. Casey Baker was responsible for five points and capped off the run turning a steal on the defensive end into a lay-up on the other end. That run came in the period of a minute.

At the 17:49 mark, a shot by Hart put the Herd up 40-37 before a three by Alona Obaze tied the game back up. That shot, coupled with consecutive treys from McIntyre sent the Cougars on a run that would see them grab a 56-50 lead with 11:44 left in the game.

Hart's fifth three of the game sent the Herd on yet another run that would see it gain a four-point advantage, 64-60, with 7:33 remaining. Hart scored eight over that run and was helped by four points from King.

With under two minutes left, another steal by Baker, followed by a lay-up gave MU a 72-66 advantage. The sixth three of the game for Twiggy McIntyre quickly cut the lead in half just 12 seconds later before two free throws from Baker extended the lead back to five.

A lay-up from McIntyre with 30 seconds remaining cut the Herd lead to three. On the ensuing possession, Hart was fouled and after hitting the front end of the one-and-one, Hart missed the second. On the other end of the floor, Hart fouled Tye Jackson on a three-point attempt with just three seconds left.

By making all three attempts, Jackson could have tied the game, but Jackson missed the first two and after intentionally missing the third, Marshall was able to come up with the rebounds. Casey Baker cemented the game hitting two free throws with two seconds left.

Baker and Hart were the only Marshall scorers in double digits. Kendra King finished with eight points and four rebounds in 24 minutes.

The Cougars were led by the duo of Twiggy McIntyre and Tye Jackson. McIntyre finished with 20 points, 18 coming beyond-the-arc. Jackson notched 14 while tallying eight assists.

Marshall set a season high in blocks with nine, led by a new career mark for Tynikki Crook who had five. Houston finished with a slight 37-36 rebounding edge while Marshall had a strong advantage in shooting, hitting 52.7% of their shots, compared to 44.4% for Houston.

Today's game wrapped up Marshall's regular season. This week, the Herd will travel to Orlando, Fla. for the Conference USA Tournament. The bracket will be determined following the completion of Saturday's C-USA games.