A late surge by the Marshall women’s basketball team (7-17, 1-10 Conference USA) wasn’t enough to defeat UAB (20-3, 9-1 CUSA) Saturday afternoon at the Cam Henderson Center. The Blazers defeated the Herd, 69-62.

“I challenged our team after Thursday,” head coach Tony Kemper said. “I just challenged them to go find that (effort). Today, I didn’t coach much effort. I just got to do basketball things.”

Despite going down by 17 late in the second quarter, the Herd trailed by  just three heading into the fourth quarter and even tied it up with a Talequia Hamiton three in the opening minute. It was a one possession game with 17 seconds left, but the Blazers did not relinquish the lead.

UAB sophomore guard Rachael Childress led all scorers with 24 points, making seven baskets from beyond the arc.

“Really good passing team,” Kemper said. “They’re patient, and eventually they find (Childress). It’s hard to chase her for 27 seconds and then the last one and half seconds you go ‘where’d she go?’ and she’s out there burying another three.”

UAB senior guard Kara Rawls added 12 points, and sophomore guard Miyah Barnes netted 11 to contribute to the Blazers’ win.

Junior guard Shayna Gore led the Herd in scoring with 21 points and moved into seventh on the all-time leading scorer’s list with 1,344 total points, passing Sheila Johnson (1,360 points, 1987-91). She is 17 points away from passing Tammy Wiggins (1,360, 1983-87) for sixth.

Hamilton tallied 15 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. She is now third all-time in blocks for Marshall.

“We played better,” Gore said. “We had better ball movement. We knew what we were supposed to do on defense. We knew what we were supposed to do on offense.”

Saturday’s game was the Thundering Herd’s annual #Play4Kay game to raise awareness for the fight against cancer and to donate money to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.

Cancer survivors were honored before the game, and Kemper’s mother threw the honorary jump ball.

“Hats off to our marketing staff here, my staff here,” Kemper said. “Coach Pate was instrumental in our pink game this year. I believe we raised a good chunk for the Kay Yow Foundation today.”

The Herd returns to the Cam Henderson Center Thursday against UTEP at 6 p.m.

Courtney Andrews can be contacted at [email protected].