On Thursday night, Buffalo took down Arizona and put forth its case for being the biggest Cinderella story of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. One day later and the No. 13 Marshall Thundering Herd showed that they’re getting ready to crash the party, too, taking down the No. 4 Wichita State Shockers in an absolutely tremendous basketball game.
Marshall ended up, well, shocking the Shockers, which came into the game as a 12-point favorite. It didn’t matter, because the Thundering Herd came out on top, 81-75, for the first Tournament win in program history.
Marshall played the style that you’d expect out of their head coach, Dan D’Antoni. Like his older brother’s Houston Rockets, Dan likes to play fast and shoot threes. And with a player the caliber of junior guard Jon Elmore, who went for an unreal 27 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field and 4-for-8 from downtown, that’s easy. Elmore is a dangerous shooter who is capable of knocking down shots like this.
Jon Elmore FROM WAY DOWNTOWN pic.twitter.com/V3lkbYFjDP
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 16, 2018
Elmore also hooked his teammates up, leading the team with four assists. Just check out this dime to set up an alley-oop from Rondale Watson, who had four points off the bench.
LOOK OUT BELOW pic.twitter.com/EHO4AY86R8
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 16, 2018
Elmore wasn’t the only player letting it fly from downtown. With the teams only separated by a point and just over three minutes on the board, freshman guard Jarrod West pulled up from NBA range and found the bottom of the net.
Marshall is setting its own 3PT line! 😳#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/zfA5eKZJyd
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 16, 2018
The Thundering Herd even turned to their defense to make a few big plays down the stretch, including a steal-and-score with two minutes remaining in the game.
THEY. ARE. MARSHALL. pic.twitter.com/NvPw8Civio
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 16, 2018
Wichita State gave everything it could, especially senior guard Conner Frankamp, who had a career-high 27 points on 10-for-17 shooting from the field and 6-for-10 from three. But unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and Marshall came out on top. We’ll find out who the Thundering Herd plays in the next round later today, but we might have an in-state battle in the round of 32, as Marshall will face off against either West Virginia or Murray State.
