MU PRESS RELEASE Herd Men’s Hoops Dominates William & Mary, 84-64

[Chris McLaughlin]

Jon Elmore became third player in program history with 2,000 points

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Led by 26 points from senior guard Jon Elmore, Marshall men’s basketball stormed past William & Mary, 84-64, Wednesday (Nov. 28) night at the Cam Henderson Center.

The Herd move to 5-1 on the season as the Tribe fall to a record of 2-5.

“We played good, solid, hard basketball,” fifth-year head coach Dan D’Antoni said. “We were pushing their offense all the way out to half-court. As soon as we saw a few backdoors in the first half, we lowered our guards to guard the corners a little lower so they couldn’t back door that first play.”

Elmore went 7 of 16 from the field, including 4 of 8 from beyond the arc, and made 8 of 9 from the free-throw line for his 21 points and became the third player in program history to reach 2,000 points, joining John Taft and Skip Henderson. The senior guard also recorded five assists, five rebounds and a pair of steals while turning the ball over just one time in the contest.

“Our energy tonight was phenomenal,” Elmore said. “From the jump, we brought energy. In the first half, they got a few easy buckets, but we gave up 27 points in the second half and that’s good anywhere you are.”

Senior guard C.J. Burks recorded double-figure points against the Tribe on a 6 of 13 night from the field for 16 points. Burks grabbed six boards, had three takeaways and three helpers on his stat line.

Senior guard Rondale Watson collected 12 points on an efficient five makes on eight attempts and brought down seven rebounds.

“I thought the last two days of practice we were locked in,” Watson said. “I thought we learned a lot from that beat down in Maryland. I thought defensively everyone was locked in and focused and it showed on the court.”

Sophomore guard Jarrod West rounded out a quartet of Marshall players with 10 or more points with an 11-point night. West added two steals, an assist and a board in the victory.

The first half saw both teams battle back-and-forth until the final five minutes of the half. The Herd trailed 35-31 with 5:02 to go. Marshall turned on the burners and closed out the final five minutes on a 15-2 run, closed out by an Elmore make from three-point range as it led 46-37 at the break.

After a make from the charity stripe by Burks at the 17:43 mark of the second half to put the Herd up 51-41, it kept the double-digit lead for the rest of the game.

Marshall held the Tribe to just 5 of 21 (23.8 percent) on three-point attempts. The Herd forced William & Mary into 20 turnovers while committing just nine.

Marshall shot 85 percent (17-20) from the free-throw line in the victory.

The Tribe’s Justin Pierce and Nathan Knight came into the contest as team’s two leading scorers averaging 21.8 and 19.3, respectively. The Herd held both of them to eight points each in the contest.

Postgame Notes

- The win marks the 78th under D’Antoni.

- Four of Marshall’s five wins have been by a margin of 20 or more points.

- Watson’s night was his first in double-figures this season.

- Elmore recorded his fourth 20-point game of the season.

- Burks is the only Herd player to score 10 or more points in all six games this season.

- West picked up his second game in double-figure scoring this season.

- Elmore has five assists in five of the Herd’s six games.

Up Next

Marshall returns to action on the road against the Ohio Bobcats on Saturday (Dec. 1) at the Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio. Opening tip is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

For all the latest information about Marshall men's basketball, follow @HerdMBB on Twitter and Instagram.

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[TwolfHerdfan]

We'll continue to struggle and beat physical teams or teams with solid bigs. It is what it is in this system. Other than Williams, our "bigs" are very weak at this point. Hopefully Bennett, Beyers and Sustic will come along by March.

 

[Chris McLaughlin]

Some other scores of interest from last night:

ODU beat VCU 62-52.
UVA beat Maryland 76-71.

 

[goherd44]

Really nice bounce back game to get us back on track. W&M played really good perimeter defense and made getting open shots difficult especially early on. Bennett looked really good early and again showed what he can do providing most of our points in the first couple minutes. He still has a long way to go for where we need him to be and looked more gassed than usual at the end of his runs last night. Jannson was cold from outside, but he showed a lot of confidence and determination in the rest of his game. Once he puts it all together look out and once Bennett gets where he needs to be weight wise hopefully the end of this season or by the start of next season he should be extremely difficult to deal with down low for much more of the game.

 

[Herd-in-ATL]

Really nice bounce back game to get us back on track. W&M played really good perimeter defense and made getting open shots difficult especially early on. Bennett looked really good early and again showed what he can do providing most of our points in the first couple minutes. He still has a long way to go for where we need him to be and looked more gassed than usual at the end of his runs last night. Jannson was cold from outside, but he showed a lot of confidence and determination in the rest of his game. Once he puts it all together look out and once Bennett gets where he needs to be weight wise hopefully the end of this season or by the start of next season he should be extremely difficult to deal with down low for much more of the game.

I did not get to watch the game, so I have a quick question. When I first looked at the box score I saw where Bennett , was 3-5 shooting for 6 points and had zero fouls (which I was really excited about) then I saw where he only played for 8 minutes. Did he get hurt, or is he on limited minutes because of his overall conditioning? I noticed you said he looked gassed.

 

[goherd44]

Bennett has started out strong for us most of our home games and brought those early points that we needed until our shooters started making shots. I know Danny is bringing him along somewhat slowly due to his conditioning. He definetly looked to me at least like he was struggling getting down the court even more than in previous games. There are going to be stretches of the games when he just doesn't fit well with what Danny is trying to do or based on the lineup the other team is using. Regardless of how gassed he seemed to be (which could have been due to a cold or something similiar or maybe he was just tired last night) he is still progressing very well and right on schedule to where Danny wants him to eventually be IMO.

 

[Tim Hensley]

Last night was a good bounce-back win after "stubbing our toe (as Stu would say)" at Maryland. In practice Monday and Tuesday, I watched our coaching staff -- personally led by Danny -- teach our kids how to keep big man Nathan Knight and W&M's little guard out of their comfort zones. In my opinion, Iran, Jannson and the rest of our kids did a near flawless job of executing what they were taught.

 

[Herdmeister]

I did not get to watch the game, so I have a quick question. When I first looked at the box score I saw where Bennett , was 3-5 shooting for 6 points and had zero fouls (which I was really excited about) then I saw where he only played for 8 minutes. Did he get hurt, or is he on limited minutes because of his overall conditioning? I noticed you said he looked gassed.

Danny was more successful defensively with a guard oriented defense challenging the perimeter so we went with no real center most of the game, Ante only played the last 2-3 minutes.
Danny loves having the ability to be able to play small ball or big ball if the occasion arises. He has never had this much versatility since being here.

 

[GreenDuke]

I watched Md again versus Va and it looks like they are going to be really good(already are). Even though Va was in control the whole game Md was very impressive.

 

[mu_herd]

Was Williams a little sick? He looked like he was about to throw up when he went to the bench in the first half and seemed like he was getting winded a bit. My wife and I both thought he looked maybe a bit under the weather, though he still played well.

Also noted that CJ's defense has come a long way. He seems to be making it a point to get his hands on the ball every time it leaves an opposing player's hands. Of course he also seems a little more turnover-prone on the offensive side as well this year, but I'm liking the progress he seems to have made in the offseason.

 

[herdinatl]

Was Williams a little sick? He looked like he was about to throw up when he went to the bench in the first half and seemed like he was getting winded a bit. My wife and I both thought he looked maybe a bit under the weather, though he still played well.

Also noted that CJ's defense has come a long way. He seems to be making it a point to get his hands on the ball every time it leaves an opposing player's hands. Of course he also seems a little more turnover-prone on the offensive side as well this year, but I'm liking the progress he seems to have made in the offseason.

we were with him thansksgiving week and right after the maryland game. he was very sick the whole time. he's on tail end of that but feeling much better. He just had a bad night shooting. we talked to him after the w&m game. he was feeling good and had some of the team over to his place watching the recording of the maryland / uva game.