Both Men’s and Women’s Basketball lost during quarterfinal matches of the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Championships.
The women’s team entered the SBC Championship, held at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Florida, ranked as the No. 11 seed and was set to play against the No. 14 seed, the South Alabama Jaguars, where the Herd earned a 73-59 win over the Jaguars to allow them to head into the second round of play.
“I was really proud of our effort today,” head coach Juli Fulks said after round one of play. “We had a couple goals. One was obviously to win, and the other was to manage the minutes well because we want to do something special here. I thought we got a really good effort from a lot of people on both ends of the ball.”
Marshall’s defense kept South Alabama to only 1-of-17 in the third quarter, which helped the Herd put the nail in the coffin.
In the second round, Marshall continued its run in the tournament with a 68-62 win over the No. 10 seed, Texas State.
After a slow first quarter, the Herd was able to rebound and get hot with the ball with SBC 1st Team award winning Aislynn Hayes scoring 13 of her 17 points in the second half, Blessing King scoring a career-high 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting and Meredith Maier adding a double-double to her resume with 10 points and 11 rebounds as Marshall overcame a halftime deficit to win to move on the third round of play.
Marshall continued showing its determination down the stretch, showing tenacity with a close 48-46 win over No. 7 seeded Louisiana.
In the final quarter, Marshall’s defense shined as it limited Louisiana to just 2-of-10 shooting while forcing six turnovers.
“We have spent all year working on being better on defense,” Fulks said. “Every week, we have looked significantly different, significantly better, and each week, we’ve attacked what was breaking down. There were so many great rotations today; when they would drive to the corners, we would get really quick switches, and when the ball went to the mid-post, we got the blocks covered.”
The Herd continued its hot streak winning its fourth game in four days with a 75-66 win over the App State Mountaineers.
Peyton Ilderton scored a career-high 21 points to seal the deal against the Mountaineers.
“We have a lot of players that are really good, and I think that’s something really special about our team,” Ilderton said in a post-game press conference. “Anybody can go off on any given day. My teammates found me today, and I was able to put the ball in the basket.”
With the fifth game in five days and down to the final six teams, Marshall’s magic ended in the quarterfinals with a tough 85-54 loss against the Troy University Trojans.
“I was incredibly proud of the effort today,” Fulks said after the quarterfinals loss. “In the third quarter, we were 2-of-20, and we have not allowed anyone to use the word ‘tired’ this week – it has been forbidden, but I thought that quarter was the first in which you saw the legs really starting to go.”
Hayes was named to the 2025 SBC All-Tournament Team where she had three 20-point performances, averaged 19.6 points per game and set the record for free throw attempts in a tournament with 43.
“I wouldn’t want to go out any other way,” Hayes said. “We fought this whole entire tournament. So many people stepped up, and it’s an unforgettable moment. I feel like we won in a way because we found ourselves in this tournament as a team. That’s a great way to go out.”
The women’s team wasn’t the only one that had some magic during the tournament.
The men’s team entered the tournament during the fourth round of play with some magic of their own during the 79-76 win over the Georgia State Panthers when Dezayne Mingo found SBC Defensive Player of the Year Obinna Anochili-Killen for a lob who scored and then was fouled with 1.8 seconds left.
However, the men’s team fell short just a day later in the quarterfinals with a back and forth 77-74 loss to the Arkansas State Red Wolves.
“Heck of a game,” head coach Cornelius Jackson said after the quarterfinals loss. “But bigger than the game, I’m proud of these guys because they kept getting better each day. These guys stayed the course and stayed connected. Obviously, it’s not the way we wanted to end it, but I’m proud of these guys.”
Around 12 minutes into the second half, Nate Martin was given a flagrant second foul, ejecting him from the game to the dismay of the Marshall crowd.
Mingo made the Herd within 75-74 with another layup with 27 seconds left, but the Herd could not find the equalizer.
Anochilli-Killen lived up to his SBC Defensive Player of the Year award when he took over the national lead in blocks and also became the fourth Marshall player in history to record 100 blocks in a season.
The championship game for both women’s and men’s were played on Monday, with the Arkansas State Red Wolves beating the James Madison dukes 86-79, crowning them the Women’s SBC Champions, and the Troy Trojans beating the Arkansas State Red Wolves to be crowned the Men’s SBC Champions.
Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected]
