The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Marshall
Blazers Drop Another Close One, Fall at Marshall, 82-78
2/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 10, 2006
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. --- The UAB women's basketball team was defeated 82-78 by Marshall Friday night, as Sikeetha Shepard-Hall led the Thundering Herd with 30 points, tying her career-best. Marshall's 82 points were a season high as well.
"I felt like we started the game on our heels," said UAB head coach Audra Smith. "We were back-peddling to start the game, but we managed to pick it up and do some things offensively. Coming out in the second half, I thought we started flat. We gave them way too many offensive rebounds and sent them to the free-throw line too often. I told the team that when we are on the road, we have to bring our rebounding and we have to defend and we did not do that tonight. It's going to be a long road for us until we start to defend. Obviously, I have to give credit to Marshall, they played an outstanding game. They gave us a lot of problems."
UAB (12-10, 5-6) had trouble with a bigger Marshall squad. The Thundering Herd tallied 47 rebounds in the contest, including 21 offensive boards, while limiting the Blazers to only 35 total rebounds.
The Blazers had a 30-28 lead at the half. Marshall (12-10, 7-4) started the second half with a 10-0 run, but UAB fought back and led the game by four with 6:52 remaining. The Thundering Herd then began to dominate the glass, tallying seven second-chance points and 12 rebounds in the final minutes of play.
Once again, Carmen Guzman led the Blazers with 21 points in the contest, as well as two assists and two steals. Britney Jones contributed 20 points and five defensive rebounds, while Crystal McFadden added 13 points.
In addition to Shepard-Hall's 30 points, Modupe Ishola had 20 points and 12 rebounds for Marshall, while Reshundra Smiley scored 18.
This was UAB's second-straight loss despite scoring 78 in this contest and 84 against Tulane on Monday night. Before this stretch, the Blazers were 9-0 when putting more than 70 points on the board.
The Blazers travel to Greenville, N.C., to face East Carolina Sunday at 2 p.m. (ET).
