Marshall women’s basketball (7-13, 1-6 C-USA) secured its first in-conference victory Sunday afternoon with a 78-75 win in nail-biting fashion against FIU (6-14, 3-4 C-USA).

“Obviously that feels really good; I’m proud of our team,” head coach Tony Kemper said. “(FIU) started the game really hot and I didn’t think our defense was awful. We were in the neighborhood, so to speak. They just hit them all.”

In the first quarter, FIU shot 68.8 percent from the field and 3-for-4 from behind the arch, giving the Panthers a 28-19 after the first quarter. Marshall outscored FIU in every quarter but the first.

Junior guard Shayna Gore led the charge for the Herd scoring 24 points and adding 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. Graduate student Talequia Hamilton, junior guard Kristen Mayo and junior forward Ekaterina Zhibareva all finished with double digits, as well.

FIU was led by junior guard Kristian Hudson’s 24 points, with nine coming from behind the arc. Redshirt junior forward Kiandre’a Pound and freshman forward Callie Cavanaugh both had double-doubles of their own. Pound had 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Cavanaugh scored 11 points with 10 rebounds. Sophomore guard Kayla Rogers added 14 points of her own.

“We stayed level-headed, and that’s good because we haven’t had a lot of things go well for us for a while. We were calm, didn’t panic on offense and just kept playing the right way and got good shots,” Kemper said. “That gave us a chance to win.”

Zhibareva hit a low post jumper with 5:14 left in the fourth to give the Herd the lead. Then, she hit a corner three on the Herd’s next possession to extend the lead 74-68. FIU fought back and scored a layup and a three on their next two possessions to bring them within one point with 2:48 left in the game. Hamilton secured an offensive rebound and had a put-back layup to give Marshall a 76-73 lead with 33 seconds left.

“I was just wanting us to get a stop,” Hamilton said. “Sometimes when we get excited we forget to play defense, so I was just thinking that we need to get a stop.”

Gore solidified the 78-75 victory with a pair of free throws, and the Herd stopped FIU on their last drive with eight seconds left.

“I’m proud of how our team handled coming in today after what happened Friday night, where nothing really went right,” Kemper said. “They went back to work and the result today feels good.”

Marshall hits the road for its next two contests, at Charlotte (7-13, 3-4 C-USA) Friday and at Southern Miss (12-8, 4-3 C-USA) Sunday.

Courtney Andrews can be reached at [email protected]