12-18-24
As a Division II opponent building off its first win in over a month, the West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats attempted to play David to Marshall’s Goliath Monday night inside the Cam Henderson Center.
Although the Bobcats faced an uphill battle against a Thundering Herd team that earned all six of its wins at home this season, the visiting side stayed even with the Herd through the first five minutes. With three-pointers by junior forward Curtis Litton and senior guard Alex Mirhosseini, the Bobcats took the lead on two occasions before extending its gap by a score of 10-7.
After falling behind early, Marshall pulled away on the back of a 13-0 run, its largest of the night. Though West Virginia Wesleyan cut its deficit to five with 11 minutes to play in the first half, the home side went into halftime with a 17-point advantage.
Senior guard Mikal Dawson proved to be the spark plug for the Herd’s first half offense, going 3-for-6 from beyond the arc and ending the half with 13 points. Exiting halftime as the only player with a double-digit point total, Dawson ended the night one point shy of his third straight 20-point game, and one three-pointer from tying his season high in consecutive games.
The Herd suffocated the Bobcats inside the paint through much of the first half and scored 19 points on visiting turnovers, continuing to build its lead through the second half with strong defense and consistent scoring. In the end, the home side scored nearly one third of its total points off of turnovers and allowed 10 assists while dishing out 30.
Marshall led by as much as 33 in what became a 93-63 victory. With its second straight win, the team improves to a 7-5 record as it will hit the road on Dec. 21 to face the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, before rounding out non-conference play and its road trip against the Elon Phoenix. Meanwhile, West Virginia Wesleyan falls to a 2-9 record having lost 8 of its past 9 games.