October 31, 2018,  Basketball  No comments

Thundering Herd Defeat the Pioneers

By Michael Morgan

The Marshall University men’s basketball team defeated the Glenville State Pioneers 113-108 in an exhibition game in the Cam Henderson Center on Sunday.

The Thundering Herd’s leading scorer was senior C.J. Burks, scoring 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting. Sophomores Darius George and Jarrod West scored 19 and 16 points respectively, and senior Jon Elmore had 16 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds.

Glenville State featured new head coach Justin Caldwell and assistant coach Ot Elmore, the older brother of Herd senior Jon Elmore, and a member of the Herd’s NCAA tournament and Conference USA champion team last season. Ot Elmore was seen before the game attempting to make Jon Elmore miss his warmup shots and the two were laughing and acting like they did when they were teammates last season.

“Justin and Ot did a great job, they shot the lights out,” Marshall Head Coach Dan D’Antoni said. “A lot of them (3-point shots) were contested and they just knocked them down. Nothing you can do about that. Some of their balls didn’t rotate right and still went in.”

The six-foot-nine, 340-pound redshirt freshman Iran Bennett made his debut for the Herd. He started the game and had seven points, one rebound, and four fouls while just playing eight minutes.

The Pioneers played similar to the Herd’s increased three-point shot style, and shot 17-for-37 from beyond the arc. Glenville State’s leading scorer was senior Jamal Pollydore, who scored 34 points with eight made 3-pointers. All-MEC guard Darhius Nunn scored 17 points for the Pioneers.

Glenville State started the game on a 14-2 run, and Marshall did not take its first lead until late in the first half, when Elmore made a reverse layup making the score 40-39, followed by an MJ-esque shoulder shrug.

Former Herd forward Phil Bledsoe tied the game at 103-103 with 5:31 remaining. Current Herd sophomore Jannson Williams dunked a lob pass from Elmore, similar to the many times in the NCAA tournament last season, which gave the Herd a five-point lead with 2:15 left against the Pioneers. Bledsoe later missed a game-tying three pointer with 31 seconds remaining in the game.

The Herd defense allowed more points than Elmore would have expected. “We showed we can score a lot of points, but our defense has to get better,” Elmore said. “Credit to them. They shot the heck out of the ball.”

This was the first game for Marshall and the defense of their Conference USA title is now underway.

“We played a lot of guys, a lot of different lineups,” Elmore said. “I saw South Carolina lost the other day in their exhibition game. Anything can happen in these games. These guys are coming in, they’re not here to get beat. The first exhibition game of the year is always going to be tough.”

“You haven’t played with each other in a live game, referees, crowd (5,734 announced attendance) there, you have a little adrenaline there you don’t have in practice. It’s definitely a learning experience,” Elmore said.

Marshall plays West Virginia Wesleyan College on Thursday and regular season play starts Wednesday, Nov. 7 at Eastern Kentucky University.