— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — To stay in the hunt for a Sun Belt Conference championship, Marshall has no margin for error down the stretch.
The Thundering Herd, tied with Troy and South Alabama for second in the league and a half game behind Appalachian State, are back in action Tuesday when welcoming Old Dominion.
Tipoff at Henderson Center is 7 p.m. for the matchup that can be seen on ESPN+.
Marshall (18-11, 10-6) never led in its last outing, Saturday’s 79-75 loss at Coastal Carolina. Herd guard Jalen Speer scored 39 points, but a rally from the visitors fell short two days after Marshall had posted a victory at Appalachian State.
“You don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself,” Herd head coach Cornelius ackson said. “I guarantee Old Dominion won’t feel sorry for us. We have to take Saturday’s loss and learn and grow from it and get our bodies well.”
Marshall, which has battled recent illness across its roster and coaching staff, has played only one of its previous five games at home, that a makeup contest one week ago with South Alabama.
Marshall defeated the Monarchs 81-79 in Norfolk, Va. on February 11. Wyatt Fricks scored 24 points to lead the Herd, followed by 18 points from Speer and Noah Otshudi.
Old Dominion (10-19, 6-10) is coming off of an 86-81 loss at Southern Miss and has endured a challenging season. The Monarchs held an 18-point first half lead, but couldn’t muster a road win over the Golden Eagles.
KC Show led ODU with 18 points in the loss, followed by the 17 points of Jordan Butler.
“We missed a golden opportunity, but we’ll have a couple of days here before we get to Marshall and will talk about things that we can be better at,” ODU head coach Mike Jones said. “But we’ve got to take a deep breath here. From top to bottom, we’ve got to be better and we’ve got to go to work on trying to be better on Tuesday.”
Shaw leads the Monarchs with an average of 17.1 points. ODU’s other double-figure scorers are Battle (14.1) and L.J. Thomas (11.2 ).
Seven-footer Caelum Swanton-Rodger tops the Monarchs in rebounding at five per game.
Speer (15.9), Fricks (14.8) and Otshudi (14.2) remain Marshall’s top scoring trio.
While the Herd awaits the return of leading rebounder and shot blocker Matt Van Komen, Fricks is paving the way on the glass with 5.7 boards on average. He also has 43 blocks.
Marshall welcomes Georgia Southern for Friday’s 9 p.m. matchup airing on ESPN2.