Herd Seek Bounce-Back Win Versus Appalachian State Mountaineers

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By Sean Kelly, FM88 Sports

Jan. 17, 2025

HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) — Since the dawn of the new year, the Marshall Women’s Basketball Team has yet to win a game, but aims to change its fortunes on Saturday in a home contest against the Appalachian State Mountaineers.

Marshall is not only playing for its first win of 2025, but its first Sun Belt Conference victory of the season. Since the end of non-conference play on December 21, Marshall dropped its first six games of SBC play, most recently falling to the James Madison Dukes by a score of 93-65.

However, not all is doom and gloom for the Herd. Junior guard CC Mays led the way offensively Wednesday night with a career-high 24 points, the most scored by a Herd player this season since December 18 when Aislynn Hayes dropped 24 on the Cincinnati Bearcats. Hayes enters Saturday’s matchup leading the Sun Belt Conference in scoring, averaging 16.7 points per game.

Despite its most recent loss, the Herd’s 4-4 home record is favorable compared to its 0-7 standing in road contests. In fact, four of the Thundering Herd’s five victories this season came inside the Cam Henderson Center, with the one exception being a neutral site victory against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

Sitting at 8-8 overall and 4-2 in conference play, the Appalachian State Mountaineers also enter the Cam Henderson Center on a downturn. Appalachian State begins the second game of its roadtrip having lost two of its past three games directly following a four-game winning streak.

Most recently, Mountaineer guard Zada Porter led the team in points with 23 and tied a career high in rebounds with 10, earning a double-double in a 78-71 loss to the Old Dominion Monarchs. As the conference leading team in field goal percentage, the Mountaineers shot 49.1% overall but just 25% from beyond the arc.

Historically, the Mountaineers lead the all-time series 25-24. However, the visitors have not beaten the Herd since March 2019 and have not won in Huntington since a narrow 56-54 victory in 2017. Additionally, the Mountaineers will seek to avenge its most recent loss to the Thundering Herd: a Sun Belt Conference quarterfinal battle that saw the Herd take a 116-74 victory.

You can tune in to the contest on WMUL-FM 88.1 and online at www.marshall.edu/WMUL. FM88 Sports’ Sean Kelly and Ethan Peltier will have the call with pregame coverage beginning at 12:30 p.m. and tip-off slated for 1 p.m.

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