Marshall Almost pulls off Miracle in Memphis

Heading into their last game of the regular season Marshall coach Tom Herrion believed his team could earn a post season birth in either the NCAA or the NIT. The players and the coaches bought into his prophecy heading into the CUSA Tournament. The Thundering Herd entered the Conference USA Tournament as the sixth seed. With the odds clearly against them it would take a miracle to earn that automatic bid.

The Thundering Herd had their way with the SMU Mustangs in the First Round winning the game 74 – 56. That was the easy part of their path, the best was yet to come. In the CUSA Quarterfinals the Herd was up against the #3 seed Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Marshall came in as a heavy underdog, but still believing in Coach Herrions stand the Herd were ready. Marshall and Tulsa were involved in a classic game that saw 19 lead changes, 21 ties, and 3 overtimes in excess of 3 hours. The neck and neck game saw Tulsa’s largest lead was by 6 at the 3:25 mark and Marshall’s largest lead was 7 at the end of the game.

With Marshall advancing to the CUSA Semi-Finals for the first time in school history the players and coaches now believed more than ever that all of their talk was coming closer and closer to becoming a reality. Nothing was going to stop this team now and that included #2 seed Southern Miss. The two teams played a very close game heading to a 29-28 halftime score. Marshall proved that they were the better team down the stretch. The threes were falling for Marshall and there was a tight lid on the bucket for the Golden Eagles. Marshall moved on with a 73-62 victory.

The CUSA Championship was now closer than ever. All Marshall had to do was beat Memphis in Memphis to win the CUSA Championship. That is much easier said than done, however for the Thundering Herd. Marshall started the off the game with a jumper by DeAndre Kane to take a 2 – 0 lead. Marshall was able to hang with Memphis until a 7 minute stretch in the first half that saw Memphis go on a 17 -2 run. Memphis held 45-27 lead at halftime and Marshall was never able to recover.

Marshall has to hold there heads up because they made further than anybody thought they would including beating the #2 and #3 seed in CUSA. The Thundering Herd gave a valiant effort to beat the odds. “The Miracle” that almost happened is still a great story.