Marshall Women’s Basketball Recap
By Sean Kelly, FM88 Sports Director
March 2, 2025
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) — Less than a week removed from its 70-59 loss in Atlanta, the Georgia State Panthers avenged its recent loss and did something it never has on Friday night: defeat the Marshall Thundering Herd in Huntington.
In the first quarter, Georgia State bullied Marshall’s defense inside the paint, scoring 10 of its 18 points from underneath the basket. Shooting 50% from the field, the visitors took a slim two-point lead.
However, cold shooting from the visiting side gave the Herd an opportunity to pull ahead at the half. While the Panthers shot just 31% in the second quarter, Marshall improved its rate to 53.8% to take a 37-33 lead. Individually, junior forward Meredith Maier and junior guard CC Mays led the Herd in points, scoring 11 and 10, respectively, as the only two to reach double figures by halftime.
Heading out of the half, Georgia State immediately overcame its narrow deficit with an 11-4 run to take a three-point advantage, with sophomore guard Crystal Henderson scoring 6 of the team’s points during the rally. Henderson ended the contest with the team lead in points, finishing the night with 15.
Despite shooting just 33% in the third quarter, the Herd never fell to a deficit below four in the third quarter. This back-and-forth pace continued into the fourth quarter, where the Panthers led by as much as five points.
Down by five with 30 seconds to play, the Herd rallied back to tie the contest at 68 with a three-pointer by Peyton Ilderton and Aislynn Hayes jumper. With five seconds left, a former Herd player clinched the visiting side’s first win inside the Cam Henderson Center.
After a late foul by Ilderton, Panthers senior Mahogany Matthews knocked down two foul shots, ending the game with 12 points. As a team, the visitors made 13 of 15 shots from the charity stripe on the way to clinching a 70-68 victory.
Throughout the contest, turnovers proved to be a lingering issue for the Herd, as head coach Juli Fulks pointed out.
“The pressure in the backcourt speeds you up a little bit, and I thought we’d been doing a really good job of handling that and then slowing down in the half-court,” Fulks said. “And we did that, but we just had so many turnovers. They had 23 points off those turnovers.”
Additionally, Fulks points out the lack of change to the Panthers’ full-court pressure as a key to the Senior Day loss.
“The corners were open all day… and I thought when we went down to their place we found it over, and over, and over,” Fulks said. “There were possessions we’d get that exact look, and then there would be other possessions where we would do something different and play faster. That was the disappointing part, we had been working on it [full-court pressure] since, literally, last Monday, and we did so well against it down in Georgia.”
With the loss, Marshall ends the regular season with a record of 11-19 and 6-12 in the Sun Belt Conference, while Georgia State ends at 15-15 overall and 8-10 in SBC play. The Herd will play as the 11 seed in the Sun Belt Conference tournament in Pensacola, Florida, facing off against the 14 seed South Alabama Jaguars. Tip-off for Tuesday’s game is slated for 3 p.m.