HUNTINGTON, WV - The Marshall Thundering Herd played tough defense and sealed its fate with a 23-2 run to open the second half en route to a 69-45 win over the University at Buffalo women's basketball team in a first-round Mid-American Conference Tournament game in front of 1,022 fans at the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington, WV. With the win, sixth-seeded Marshall (17-11 overall, 8-8 MAC) advances to face No. 3 Kent State in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 10 in Gund Arena in Cleveland, OH. The Bulls, the tournament's 11th seed, finish the season with a 6-21 overall record and a 4-12 MAC mark.

Kim Kilpela

Marshall's Sikeetha Shepard-Hall opened the scoring with a three-pointer, and the Thundering Herd quickly jumped out to a 9-2 lead to open the game. Shepard-Hall then scored eight points during a 13-0 Marshall run later in the half that got the Herd out to a double-digit lead, 28-14, with 4:35 to play. A late three-pointer by freshman Kelly Calderone (Freedom, PA/Ambridge) cut Marshall's lead to 12 at the half, 36-24. Shepard-Hall scored 15 of her team-high 17 points in the first half to lead the Thundering Herd, who shot 44.1 percent from the floor (15-for-34) and scored 14 points off of 13 Buffalo turnovers in the first half. The Bulls shot 47.4 percent from the floor (9-for-19) in the half.

The Thundering Herd started the second half with a 12-0 run, holding the Bulls scoreless for the first four minutes. The Bulls missed their first seven shots until a jumper by senior Kim Kilpela (West Bloomfield, MI/West Bloomfield) finally fell with 14:48 on the clock, making the score 48-26. Marshall extended the run to 23-2 to go up by 33 points, 59-26, for its largest lead of the game. The Thundering Herd finished the half shooting 38.9 percent from the floor (14-for-36), while the Bulls shot just 22.2 percent (6-for-27).

"Marshall took us out of our game physically," said Buffalo head coach Cheryl Dozier. "They forced us into some bad shots and we couldn't knock them down, especially in the second half. We also gave up too many offensive rebounds and didn't help ourselves at the foul line."

Shepard-Hall was the only player to reach double figures for the Thundering Herd, but their balanced scoring attack had 11 players show up in the scoring column. Shepard-Hall added seven assists and five steals. Marshall shot 41.4 percent in the game (29-for-70) and outrebounded the Bulls by a 43-41 margin. The Herd scored 28 points off of Buffalo's 26 turnovers in the game and scored 15 second chance points thanks to 19 offensive rebounds.

Kilpela led the Bulls with 20 points to become just the 14th player in UB women's basketball history to surpass the 1,000 mark for career scoring. She finishes her career with 1,005 career points. Senior Jessica Kochendorfer (Allen, MI/Quincy) added eight points and 11 rebounds in her final game in a Buffalo uniform. The Bulls finished the game with a 32.6 shooting percentage (15-for-46) and they were just 13-of-27 from the free throw line (48.1 percent).