HUNTINGTON — For Marshall and Louisiana Tech’s women’s basketball programs, the Conference USA season started with the two teams playing each other.
For one of those teams, the season will start and end with the other.
Marshall, the No. 5 seed in the East Division, meets the Lady Techsters, No. 4 in the West, meet at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of the Conference USA tournament at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
While the opponent will be a familiar one, Marshall coach Tony Kemper said his team is much different now than what it was when it faced Louisiana Tech to open the Conference USA schedule Jan. 1-2 in Huntington.
“That was so long ago,” Kemper said. “We were two games into the season when we played them the first time around.”
Marshall had a COVID-19 shutdown that left the Thundering Herd without a game for a 22-day stretch prior to the meetings with Louisiana Tech.
As if that wasn’t hard enough, Marshall also found out on the day before the first game against Louisiana Tch that the Herd had more attrition to its lineup due to contact tracing.
It left Marshall with seven players dressed as the Herd took the court for that first weekend.
“If you remember right, 24 hours before that game started, our lineup shuffled big-time,” Kemper said. “We lost three starters right before it.”
Even with a depleted lineup, Marshall took Louisiana Tech to overtime in the first contest before falling 61-51.
The Herd led that contest by 12 points in the third quarter, only to see the depleted bench take its toll down the stretch of the loss.
Marshall rebounded well from, earning a 61-57 win over Louisiana Tech in the second game of the series. In that contest, Paige Shy stepped up for the Herd in a starting role, scoring 11 points and grabbing a team-high nine rebounds.
Savannah Wheeler had 16 points in the win after being limited to seven in the prior loss.
Kemper said one of the keys for Louisiana Tech is its defense, which brings plenty of athleticism and length to the floor.
“They are a good basketball team, very good defensively,” Kemper said. “They’ve got some athletes that cause some problems on both ends of the floor and they push you out of your offense.”
Kemper added though that Marshall is much different team from what it was two-plus months ago.
“I know we’re a lot different team, and I think in a good way,” Kemper said. “I looked at some of the stuff we were running play-wise and I’d say we have twice as big a playbook now as we did those first couple games.”
That playbook has aided the Herd to some big wins in recent weeks, including wins over the top team in each division (Rice and Middle Tennessee) in the final three weeks of the season.
The catalyst for that resurgence has been Wheeler, who was named a All-Conference USA second-team selection on Monday. Wheeler is sixth in the league in scoring at 17 points per game.
The sophomore from Catlettsburg, Kentucky led Marshall to a win in the opening round last season before the C-USA Tournament was canceled. Wheeler said she was eager to get back down to Texas to start the title chase again.
“I’m just thankful to be down here competing against good teams in our conference and just aiming for the championship,” Wheeler said. “That’s the only thing that’s been on my mind lately.”
Kemper said the increased production and efficiency of his leader has been crucial to Marshall’s improvement over the final weeks of the season.
“She has been a steady force that, every time we line up, the other team is trying to get her off of what she’s trying to do,” Kemper said. “We’ve started to close as of late and we’re playing pretty well. She’s a big part of that.”
Wheeler was joined on C-USA’s second team by Louisiana Tech’s Keiunna Walker, who will be a focal point for the Herd defense Wednesday. Walker scored 26 points in the win over Marshall on Jan. 1, but was limited to 12 points the following night as Marshall earned the split.
The winner of Wednesday’s contest will take on Middle Tennessee in the Conference USA quarterfinals at 3 p.m. Thursday.
