After splitting against Middle Tennessee State in the regular-season finale, the Marshall women’s basketball team opens the Conference USA tournament as the No. 5 seed in the East division, taking on No. 4 west division seed Louisiana Tech Wednesday at 3 p.m.  

Head coach Tony Kemper said that he is pleased with how his team is playing late into the season.  

“I think our team is playing really well,” Kemper said. “I’ve been saying that this team had a chance to do good things all year.”  

The Herd finished the regular season with an overall record of 8-10 (7-9 in C-USA), while LA Tech had a regular-season record of 13-9 (8-8 in C-USA).  

The two teams played earlier in the season and split the series.  

The Lady Techsters will be playing its first game since Feb. 27, when it played the Rice Owls.   

LA Tech ended up getting swept in the two-game series, as it would not score more than 53 points in any of the games against the top-ranked Lady Owl C-USA defense.   

Against MTSU, Marshall was without one of its leaders in the series –senior guard Kristen Mayo. Due to a knee injury, Mayo’s career at Marshall is finished. 

Mayo said that basketball is a team effort, and she wants to show support for the team any way she can.  

“It’s one thing for me to be here, but it’s another thing for me to be positive and be here,” Mayo said. “(Marshall) is still playing good basketball whether I’m there or not.”  

The Herd offense is scoring a C-USA worst 60.8 points a game, while LA Tech’s offense is fifth- worst in C-USA, scoring 65 a game.  

Defense is a strength for both teams as Marshall is giving up 63 points per game (third-best), and the Bulldogs are giving up 59.9 points per game (second-best). 

Marshall is led by its sophomore guard, Savannah Wheeler. She averages 17 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists; she was named yesterday to the All-Conference USA second team.  

The Lady Techsters are led by junior guard Keiunna Walker who averages 16.2 points per game and four rebounds.  

The C-USA women’s basketball tournament will take place in Frisco, Texas.  

The game is scheduled for Wednesday, Mar. 10 at 3 p.m. and will air on ESPN+.  Marshall sports information director Jason Corriher will also have the call of the game on WMUL-FM 88.1. 

Noah Hickman can be contacted at [email protected].