Marshall University’s women’s basketball comeback fell short 64-54 to the Old Dominion Monarchs on Saturday in the Cam Henderson Center.

“You have to begin by crediting Old Dominion,” Head Coach Tony Kemper said. “That’s one of the better teams in our league. I thought they were here ready to play, and the flip side is I do not think we showed up today with the effort that it takes to be beat a conference possible champion.”

The Herd fell to 11-15 (No. 8 in Conference USA), while the Monarchs improved to 23-4 (No. 2 C-USA).

Sophomore Kia Sivils led the way with 16 points going 6-for-7 from the field and 3-for-3 from beyond the arc while adding two steals. Freshman Savannah Wheeler had 14 points with three

rebounds and four steals. Following Wheeler, junior Kristen Mayo had 13 points and six rebounds. Senior Princess Clemons posted five points with six rebounds.

“I am very humble,” Sivils said. “I think I played good but at the end of the day it does not really matter. It is frustrating to us because we had it, but we just have to put it back behind us and work forward.”

The Monarchs led the entire game. Sophomore Amari Young posted the first the shot with a jumper. In the first quarter, the score was 18-7. Wheeler posted four points, followed by Clemons with two points and Pearson with one point.

In the second quarter, the Herd gained eight points, making the score 36-22. Sivils posted eight points with two three-pointers and one layup. Wheeler had four points in the second quarter. Marshall was down 14 points in the end of the first half.

Wheeler made her first three pointer of the game with 51 seconds left of the third quarter. The Herd gained 12 points in the third quarter, Wheeler had nine points and three steals followed by Sivils with 11 points and one steal. Mayo had six points and Clemons scored five points.

The Herd gained 20 points just in the fourth quarter, the most points posted in the game.

“Consistency is really what has gotten us all year,” Kemper said. “We have no energy in the three quarters and the right kind of energy in the fourth quarter. The end results are the end results.”

The Herd went 16-for-52 (31%) from the field and 5-for-22 (63%) from the three-point line while the Monarchs went 22-for-61 (36%) from the field and 9-for-23 (39%) from the three-

point line. Marshall went 17-for-27 (63%) in free throws, and the Monarchs went 11-for-25 (44%) in free throws.

Marshall had seven turnovers, 33 rebounds and seven steals. Old Dominion had 11 turnovers and 53 rebounds with a total of five steals.

“We need to prepare better for North Texas than before the team we played today,” Kemper said. “We got to do a better job from all of us preparing for the Mean Green.”

The Herd is set to play again on Saturday Feb. 29 in the Cam Henderson Center against University of North Texas at 1 p.m.

Stormy Randazzo can be contacted at [email protected].