Rising Above Tulane

The Marshall Thundering Herd used a dominant performance on both sides of the ball to snap its four-game losing streak against Tulane on Wednesday night.

"We needed that win tonight," said junior big man Nigel Spikes. "We just had to get back on track. We were tired of losing, that's not us. We did what we had to do and got the win."

En route to a 63-44 victory, the Herd had four double-figure scorers, and leading the way for the Herd was DeAndre Kane with 13.

"It was a very balanced effort –– good contribution from a lot of guys and a terrific win for us," said Marshall head coach Tom Herrion.

All season long, the Herd's bread and butter has been its ability to out-rebound its opponents and a keeping defensive mindset, but during the losing streak Marshall had strayed from its dominance.

"We kind of got back to our old fabric: Defend and rebound," Herrion said. "Our defense and our rebounding totally carried us tonight. Any time you hold a team in our league to 44 points, it's an outstanding effort."

However, against Tulane Marshall found its mojo on the glass dominating the Green Wave in rebounds 45-22, while twenty of the Herd's 45 rebounds came on the offensive glass, leading to 16 second chance points.

"We're a real good rebounding team and I feel like we haven't been up to par in our rebounding," said Spikes. "I feel like we got back on track tonight. We've had some really hard, physical practices this week, and that helped us a lot."

On the offensive side, Marshall was very effective. The Herd shot 40 percent from the field, and had 17 assist on 23 made field goals.

"We're sharing the ball better, we've got the ball moving, I thought we ran better offense," Herrion said.

In the early goings Marshall fell behind 10-5 to Tulane before Shaq Johnson provided the spark the Herd needed, netting 3-3 from beyond the arc on his way to 12 points.

"Shaq gave us a big spark in the beginning of the game and got a little run going," Herrion said. "It got us to focus in on our assignments and lock down our defense and we got some easy baskets in transition. That got the run going."

There's an old saying in sports that says "you play like you practice," and in the past week, it has been no different for the Herd.

"Our practices the past two days and shoot around today have been outstanding," Herrion said. "I think it's reflective of the attitudes of our kids, the leadership of the older guys, and that's what I'm really proud of right now."

The victory moves the Herd to 14-8 (5-3 C-USA). Up next, Marshall will travel to Tulsa, who Herrion calls the hottest team in Conference USA.

Jarrod Clay can be contacted at clay105@marshall.edu.