11-14-2024
Juli Fulks, Marshall head women’s basketball coach, earned her first win at the helm Wednesday. Marshall defeated Elon 65-56 with a strong defensive showing by the Thundering Herd.
“I think I’ve been really blessed and lucky,” Fulks said during her postgame news conference. “There is no better job than this, and so to be able to watch them go out and the work they have done to get this win, to me, that the satisfying part.”
Marshall’s defense forced Elon into numerous mistakes and tough shots early by utilizing its 2-3 zone defense. At the first media timeout midway through the first quarter, with the game tied 8 all, Marshall had limited Elon to 3-9 shooting from the field and had forced 3 turnovers.
Marshall struggled offensively to start the game as well, starting the first five minutes only shooting 3-8 from the field.
“We were kind of slow to get going today,” Fulks said. “Their (Elon’s) pressure is really not meant to speed you up; it meant to slow you down and make a lot of extra passes.” “I thought they (Elon) had done a really good job. We had to play slow in the backcourt and it’s kind of hard to switch gears every couple of possessions. So, it took us a few minutes to get going.”
The Herd quickly bounced back with Aislynn Hayes scoring 8 points and going 3-5 from the floor to give the Herd a 19-15 lead.
“She (Hayes) was an instrumental part of that (getting us going in the first quarter),” Fulks said. “We got out of the press break, and we were able to get some easy looks early and get us on the board and get us on the flow.”
Marshall defensively would show its strengths in the second quarter as Marshall would hold Elon to nearly 3 minutes without a made shot. Elon would also end the quarter missing its last 5 shots and converting on only one of its previous 8.
Elon would be held to 21% from the field in the second quarter and 0-6 from behind the arc as it could not get past the effective zone of the Thundering Herd.
Elon would outscore Marshall 20-15 in the fourth quarter, but Marshall would win the game at the free throw in the hands of Hayes as she went a perfect 6-6.
“All this summer, that was my main focus,” Hayes said during coach Fulks’ postgame news conference. “Working on free throws, I left a lot of points off the court when I did not make my free throws last year. I feel like when you put in the work it will show in the game.”
Fulks said that she had prepared her team as of late on scenarios to earn late-game trips to the charity stripe.
“One of the things we’ve been working was trying to get a lot of early action to open up the driving lanes late and getting to the rim,” Fulks said. “We are trying to make sure that the defense has to move and shift before we are really attacking, and I thought we done a much better job the last six quarters of understanding that.”
Overall, the Thundering Herd held the Phoenix 35% shooting and 13% from behind the arc and allowing a quarter-high of 20 points in the 4th quarter. Fulks said that the team is getting closer to reaching its goals defensively.
“At the end of the day, we defended very well,” Fulks said. “It was 15, 10, 11. Our goal is under 15 every quarter, and we are getting closer to the game that we nail that for four quarters.”
Marshall women’s basketball seeks to earn back-to-back wins Sunday when it entertains George Mason at the Cam Henderson Center. The game will be broadcast on WMUL 88.1-FM, with pregame coverage starting at 5:30 p.m.