Marshall men’s basketball team fell to Louisiana Tech University , 97-94, after a buzzer-beating shot from just under half court.

Louisiana Tech senior Alex Hamilton, who was the game’s leading scorer with 38 points, hit the game-winning basket as time expired. 

The Herd (15-15, 11-6) struggled to make a substantial lead in efforts to secure the game, resulting in the Bulldogs and the Herd battling head to head the whole game.

Marshall’s leading scorer was senior James Kelly with 27 points. Kelly added six rebounds in a losing effort.

With Marshall down by two points, Kelly was fouled, and had a chance to take the lead for the Herd.

Kelly made one of his free throws to tie the game at 94.

With only three seconds left, Hamilton made his unpredictable shot to close out the game.

“It hurts,” sophomore Jon Elmore said. “We were right there the whole game. Losing like that just hurts. We made some bad plays down the stretch, so we can’t blame it on that one play because we shouldn’t have been in that position.”

Elmore was the second leading scorer for Marshall, earning his second double-double this season with 18 points and 10 assists.

Junior Stevie Browning said the team tries to take tough loses as motivation to play better against the upcoming team.

“We have to regroup,” Browning said. “And we have a big game Saturday that we have to focus on. We will definitely use this as motivation”.

Junior Ryan Taylor got in foul trouble early in the game and fouled out in the fourth quarter.

Browning said losing Taylor hurts the team and believes the Herd is a better team overall when he is on the court.

Marshall takes on the University of Southern Mississippi 7 p.m. Saturday at the Cam Henderson Center. 

Danielle Wright can be contacted at Wright317@marshall.edu