The Marshall Thundering Herd women’s basketball team lost its season opener to the Indiana State Sycamores, 62-53, Wednesday at the Cam Henderson Center.

“We all have to be better,” Marshall head coach Tony Kemper said. “It’s disappointing to start the year like that.”

Both teams were highly competitive throughout the first half, with neither team able to run away with the lead to start the game. The Thundering Herd went into the locker room with a 30-25 halftime lead, led by Khadaijia Brooks’ 10 points and 7 first half rebounds.

The contest was the redshirt junior guard’s first game back following a leg injury that sidelined her for the entire 2017-18 season.

“I was really nervous,” Brooks said. “I haven’t really played a whole game with the atmosphere of the crowd in a year. It was really good for me.”

Brooks finished the game with a game-high 16 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.

Indiana State responded to its 5 point halftime deficit by starting the third quarter with a 12-0 run to take firm control of the lead. Marshall never reclaimed the lead. Indiana State ended up outscoring the Herd 27-14 in the third quarter—after it scored 25 in the entire first half—behind a seven-point quarter from senior forward Regan Wentland.

Marshall senior guard Shayna Gore said she was disappointed with the way the team played in the third quarter.

“We had the lead, we need to learn to keep it,” Gore said. “I think we need to keep doing the things we did in the first half that got us the lead and carry it over into the second half. We stopped playing defense, we stopped rebounding, we stopped doing what it took to get to that lead.”

Gore finished the game with 12 points and went 3-for-14 from the field, short of her 19.6-point per game average last season.

Marshall cut the Sycamores’ lead down to three with seven minutes left in the game, but Indiana State extended its up to nine and ended the game with its final score of 62-53.

Kemper said the team will need to step up its performance in fourth quarters throughout the remainder of the season.

“We have to be much better in the fourth quarter at executing,” Kemper said.

The Herd will hit the road looking for its first win of the season against Bowling Green Falcons next Tuesday in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Derek Gilbert can be contacted at [email protected].