Feb. 23, 2008

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UCF at Marshall Game Book

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Tyler Wilkerson (Lexington, Ky.) registered his fourth double-double with 22 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to lead the Marshall University men's basketball team to a 71-66 victory over visiting UCF at the Cam Henderson Center on Saturday.

Wilkerson, a sophomore, and senior guard Mark Dorris (Cincinnati, Ohio) each scored 13 points in the second half as the Thundering Herd offense came to life after halftime. Marshall (15-11, 7-6 Conference USA) led 25-24 at intermission and nearly doubled its point output in the second half.

Dorris finished with 18 points. He made a career-high 15 trips to the free-throw line, sinking a career-best 12 tosses, and added four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Dorris' efforts helped the Herd get to the free-throw line 32 times for the second straight game, yet this time Marshall sank 27 free throws (84.4 percent) as opposed to only 19 last game versus UTEP.

UCF's Mike O'Donnell opened the game with a 3-pointer, but Marshall responded with the first of its 15 second-chance points. Markel Humphrey (Atlanta, Ga.), the recipient of a Wilkerson pass after an offensive rebound, dunked home the Herd's first points of the game.

Jermaine Taylor, who torched the Herd for 34 points in the season's first matchup on Feb. 6, scored his only first-half field goal via an alley-oop dunk off a feed from Chip Cartwright to give the Knights (14-12, 7-5) a 9-8 edge.

Neither team pulled ahead by more than four points in a tight first half before Marshall entered the break up one. The teams combined to shoot 14-of-46 (30.4 percent) in the first half, with MU hitting 31.6 percent (6-for-19) of its attempts and 29.6 percent (8-for-27) for UCF.

Both teams shot 50 percent or better in an up-and-down second half. The 6-foot-8 Wilkerson opened the second stanza with his third 3-pointer of the season, sparking the Herd to a 13-4 half-opening run. A tip-in by Humphrey was quickly followed by a Dorris steal and fast break dunk by Wilkerson that electrified the 5,150 in attendance.

Taurean Marshall (Fort Washington, Md.) capped the run and pushed the Herd's lead to double-digits, 38-28 at 14:58, with his runner from the base line. T. Marshall played 12 minutes, his longest playing time since returning from a knee injury on Feb. 6 at UCF. The senior scored six points (4-4 FT) with three assists and a steal.

A Darryl Merthie (Lake Mary, Fla.) jumper gave Marshall its biggest lead, 44-33, with 11:38 remaining. Taylor, after a 1-for-7 first half, awoke with back-to-back 3-pointers to slice the Knight deficit to five points with nine minutes to go.

Marshall held a seven-point lead with just over three minutes left when UCF coach Kirk Speraw was charged with a technical foul. Dorris' two free throws turned out to be a pair of important insurance points as it kept UCF from closing to within one possession of tying the game with under a minute to go.

The Herd led 62-54 with 1:25 remaining but UCF closed to within four points, 65-61, with 22 seconds left after a Mike Battle trey. T. Marshall and Dorris nailed all four Herd free throw attempts down the stretch to seal the win.

Marshall held Taylor, C-USA's leading scorer in league play with 24.1 ppg, to only 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting. Herd senior Pierre-Marie Altidor Cespedes (Montreal, Quebec) got the defensive assignment on Taylor for much of the game.

O'Donnell launched a career-high 16 three-point attempts (4-for-16) for a team-high 20 points as the Knights finished 10-for-29 from distance. Marshall sank a season-low two 3-pointers (2-for-13).

MU freshman Tirrell Baines (Laurens, S.C.) netted 10 points while Humphrey scored eight points with eight rebounds and four assists.

The Herd shot 55.6 percent after halftime and out-rebounded UCF 35-31.

After an off day on Wednesday, the Herd will return to action next Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., to face the Golden Hurricane.