Toledo Falls at Marshall in MAC Action, 73-56

Final Stats

HUNTINGTON, WV - In a battle of first-place teams from the MAC West and MAC East, Toledo (9-10, 5-3 MAC) dropped a 73-56 decision at Marshall (11-7, 5-2 MAC) Saturday afternoon at the Cam Henderson Center.

Sophomore Danielle Bishop and freshman Jasmine House paced the Rockets' attack with 12 points, respectively. Junior Crystal Young added 10 points and six assists. It is the second consecutive game Young has tallied double figures.

"A positive from today's contest was the play of Crystal and Jasmine," Toledo Head Coach Mark Ehlen said. "Crystal played all 40 minutes, and I thought did a great. She is starting to pick up some scoring for us, which is a real positive. Jasmine played her best game of the season and has really been playing well the last few games."

Toledo leading scorer senior Karin Hoogendam was held in check by the extremely strong and athletic Marshall squad. Hoogendam was limited to only six points, eight below her season average, on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-8 from the free throw line.

UT shot 37.5 percent (21-of-56) from the field, 33.3 percent (5-of-15) from three-point range and an uncharacteristic 50.0 percent (9-of-18) from the free throw line. Toledo entered today's game knocking down almost 75 percent from the charity stripe in conference games.

"Sometimes when you play poorly, everything goes wrong," Ehlen said. "Today showed that we were not ready to play mentally. The last month we had been shooting free throws pretty well and today we couldn't do anything right. "

Marshall's all-MAC candidate Sikeetha Shepard-Hall led all scorers with 21 points. Teyonda Hodge had 14 points, while KeShawna Curry chipped in with 12.

The storyline of today's first-place battle was Toledo's inability to control the action of the game in the lane. The Midnight Blue and Gold were outmuscled in the paint by the Thundering Herd and outscored in the process, 44-18.

"I thought we played very soft, especially in the second half," Ehlen said. "Marshall took it to the basket on us and scored inside with ease. We have prided ourselves with our defense for the last few weeks and today Marshall seemed to get easy shot after easy shot. "

Marshall shot impressive 50.0 percent (19-of-58) from the field, including 51.6 percent (16-of-31) in the second half. The Thundering Herd also won the battle on the boards, 42-32.

Early on, Toledo looked good and led 6-2 on the strength of a pair of three pointers by freshman Olivia Terry.

Marshall quickly retaliated with an 8-0 run to take a 10-6 advantage with 13:23 remaining in the opening half. Shepard-Hall fueled the run scoring four of the eight points.

The Thundering Herd continued to hold the advantage until UT's Young connected off the glass to tie the score at 22-22 with 5:10 left.

Marshall quickly responded with a 7-0 run to retake the lead for good, 29-22, on a three-pointer by Shepard-Hall and layups by Modupe Ishola and Kim Griffin.

The Rockets, though, ended the first 20 minutes with a 7-1 run, including a wide-open layup by Hoogendam with 4.3 seconds left to trail 30-29 at the half.

Marshall opened the final 20 minutes scoring the first five points to up its lead to 35-29 with 19:00 minutes left in regulation. Reshundra Smiley, who did not score in the first half, tallied four of the five points.

Unfazed by the Thundering Herd early second-half spurt, Toledo closed the gap to 35-34 on a triple by Young and a layup by sophomore Savannah Werner with 16:03 remaining.

Marshall held serve and got a three-pointer by Shepard-Hall and a three-point play by Curry to push its lead to 48-41. The home team then proceeded to increase their advantage to 52-43 following a three-point play by Shepard-Hall with 9:50 left. The foul on the play was called on Hoogendam, her third of the game and forced her to the bench.

Down the stretch, Toledo was unable to mount an attack which allowed Marshall to pull away. The closest the Rockets would get was 65-56 with 2:34 remaining after a three-pointer by Bishop. UT hit only 26.7 percent (8-of-30) of the shots in the final 20 minutes to snap its three-game overall win streak and a four-game true road winning streak.

Toledo returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 5 when it travels to Kalamazoo, MI to battle Western Michigan. Tip-off is slated for 2:00 p.m. in University Arena.

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