A game that saw 12 ties and 14 lead changes ended in heartbreaking fashion for Erica Woods and her Marshall University Women’s Basketball teammates, as they fell in overtime to the Rice Owls, at the Tudor Fieldhouse.
Marshall put its eighth starting lineup of the season on the floor, with junior Aja Sorrells making her first career start. Freshman McKenzie Akers earned her second start, the first being against WVU Tech, back on December 9th 2014. Chelsey Romero returned to the lineup for the first time since January 11th, versus UAB. Redshirt senior Woods and sophomore Norrisha Victrum rounded out the starting five.
The first 10 minutes of play saw four ties and six lead changes, and at the 8:15 mark, Sorrells knotted it for the fifth time at 20-20. Rice’s leading scorer, Jessica Kuster, gave them a 22-20 lead on a jumper at 5:01, but Chukwuka Ezeigbo quickly answered with a put-back to tie it again at 22. Senior Suporia Dickens hit a three to put Marshall back in front, 25-22, but Rice answered again with a three by Maya Hawkins at 2:41. Marshall ended the half on a 5-to-1 run, holding a 30-26 lead at the break.
Rice gained momentum coming out of the half, rolling on an 11-to-2 run to go up, 37-32. However, Marshall’s resiliency tied the game back up at 37 after AJ Johnson’s second three. Ezeigbo put Marshall on top, 39-37, but Hawkins struck again from downtown to make it 40-39 in Rice’s favor at 13:32. A 7-to-0 Marshall run tied their largest lead of the game at 46-40, with 12:18 remaining.
The game’s unpredictability continued as Rice re-gained the lead, 55-53, at 7:50 after Hawkins hit her fifth three and Megan Shafer was fouled while converting a layup. The next five minutes saw two ties and a lead change until two Scott free throws gave Marshall a 65-63 advantage with 1:09 remaining in regulation. A Rice turnover gave Marshall the ball with 0:57 on the clock, but Marshal was unable to convert and ended up fouling Kuster at 0:29. She sunk both to tie the game for the 12th time, at 65-65. A last-shot effort by Johnson fell short, and Marshall found itself in its first overtime period of the season.
Overtime opened with Hawkins sinking her sixth three-pointer of the game, and Kuster followed with back-to-back layups to put Rice up, 72-65. Dickens cut the lead to 72-68 with her third trey, but Kuster struck back with another layup, sealing the score at 74-68 after 45 minutes of play.
Despite being outrebounded, 41-35, Marshall dominated in the paint, with 40 points to Rice’s 22. Scott ended with 18 points, her sixth-consecutive game in double-digits. Dickens and Victrum also finished in double-digits, with 17 and 10 points, respectively.
Woods still recovering from her ankle injury played 14 minutes of action going 0 for 1 from the Field as she did not score on the afternoon. Woods did however grab 4 Rebounds to go along with one Assist.
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