Turnovers Too Much for Marshall as East Carolina Wins, 69-68, in Overtime

The Marshall Thundering Herd will not be going into Senior Night at the Cam Henderson Center Saturday on a high note.

The East Carolina Pirates capitalized on mistakes by scoring 24 points off of 20 Herd turnovers as they went on to win 69-68 in overtime on Senior Night in Greenville, N.C.. 

Darrius Morrow—the only senior on the Pirates—led his team with 27 points on 8-for-16 shooting and 11-for-17 from the free throw line to go with eight rebounds. 

Damier Pitts and DeAndre Kane—who fouled out for the third time this season—both scored 17 points for the Herd.

Dennis Tinnon nearly had himself another double-double with nine points and 12 rebounds. 

The Herd were down 63-61 with just over a minute left when Kane stole a pass and dished aheadto Shaquille Johnson for the layup. That would be the final scoring possession in regulation. 

It was apparent that by the time overtime had come, both teams were spent physically.

All of ECU's points in overtime came from the free-throw line, while Marshall was 1-for-11 from the field in the extra period. 

The 20 turnovers from the Herd completely negated the +15 rebounding margin the Herd had amassed. 

"Give East Carolina credit," Marshall head coach Tom Herrion said. "But I'm really disappointed with us. Twenty turnovers out of nowhere and we've been the third-best team in the conference taking care of the ball. We contributed mightily to the loss. This is a disappointing loss for us."

The Herd has now lost 87% of their games this season when converting 10 or fewer free throws in a game. They finished 10-of-17 for 58% in another poor outing from the charity stripe.

This marks the third time this season that the Thundering Herd have led at halftime only to lose the game.

The loss was the Herd's second straight and drops them into a tie for sixth in Conference USA with Rice. They currently sit at 17-12 on the season and 8-7 in conference play.

East Carolina improves to 13-15 on the season and 4-11 in Conference USA, good for tenth in the league standings.

Marshall looks to end its season on a high note with Senior Night in the Cam Henderson Center on Saturday against Southern Mississippi, before traveling to Memphis for the Conference USA tournament.

Marshall would have to win the tournament outright if they are to make good on preseason expectations of the NCAA Tournament.