Sports
Marshall Trounces Rio Grande 119-77
By: Justin Holbrock
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Marshall’s men’s basketball team jumped out to an early 27-4 lead and never looked back as it defeated the Rio Grande RedStorm 119-77 at the Cam Henderson Center. In this exhibition contest for Rio, the Thundering Herd improved to 2-0 on the year and 15-0 all-time against Rio Grande.
Elijah Pittman scored a game-high 29 points on 11-of-20 shooting leading The Herd to victory. After winning the Conference USA Co-Player of the Week last week, Pittman continued his hot streak, and was joined by six other teammates who reached double figures. One of these players included freshman point guard Kareem Canty who dropped his first career double-double with 18 points and 11 assists. Ryan Taylor and Chris Thomas also had 15 points apiece, while Tamron Manning, Austin Loop, and Shawn Smith all had 11 points each.
Altogether Marshall shot 62.5 percent from the field compared to only 39.7 percent by the RedStorm. Marshall led the entire game and went into halftime leading by 27 points which was the closest Rio would get the rest of the night.
Early in the game Rio did not score a field goal for nearly nine minutes, and missed 14 of its first 15 shots. The RedStorm also made only 10 three pointers out of the 35 they shot. A big reason for Rio’s shaky offense was the absence of sophomore guard D.D. Joiner who injured his foot less than one minute into the game. Joiner left the arena on crutches after being carried off the court by his teammates. The severity of his injury remains unknown.
In the losing effort, the RedStorm had some positive notes to take away from the game. Senior guard Jermaine Warmack led the team with 17 points and had six assists with no turnovers. Sterling Smoak had the most rebounds in the game with 10, while junior guard Evan Legg added 14 points of his own.
Rio Grande returns home this Friday to host the Bevo Francis Invitational Tournament at the Newt Oliver Arena. In their opening round game, the RedStorm face off against Cincinnati-Clermont with tipoff set for 8 p.m.