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ORLANDO, Fla. -Michael Jordan was watching from a suite at the UCF Arena as Marshall traveled to UCF for the third game of the season, and a fellow native of North Carolina put on a show that left everyone in the building and a national television audience impressed

Gastonia, N.C. freshman Hassan Whiteside’s second triple-double of the season led the Thundering Herd past UCF 81-75 on Wednesday night in Orlando. A second-best crowd ever at UCF - 9,460 - saw Whiteside and the Herd rally from down 12 points early in the second half to take Marshall's third consecutive win to open Conference USA play, with two of the three coming on the road.

“Tonight was a great team effort,” said Marshall head coach Donnie Jones.  “It was a great team effort.  I’m proud of guys for fighting hard in a tough place to play.”

Whiteside led five Marshall players in double figures with his, and Marshall's, second ever triple-double, scoring 14 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, and blockin 10 shots.

“Our  guards did a great job of forcing their guards into the lane,” Whiteside said.  “We played a good, hard defense all night.”

Senior guard Chris Lutz hit 6-of-8 from three and led the Herd and all scorers with 21 points, while fellow senior Tyler Wilkerson scored in double figures for the 15th consecutive game in a row with 14 points and he had seven rebounds for the 14-2 Herd, 3-0 in league play.

The last time Marshall was 14-2 was the 1971-72 team, who started 23-2 on the way to a in-season ranking of No. 8 in the nation before finishing 12th after the NCAA Tournament. That team included New York Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni, first-round Milwaukee Bucks selection Russell Lee as well as players like Randy Noll and Ty Collins.

Marshall opened with the game with a five-point lead, but turnovers had the Herd in trouble all during the first half. Marcus Jordan, the son of Michael - and the only Knight not wearing addidas shoes - hit a three-point shot to give the Knights their largest lead of the half, 44-32, with 43 seconds remaining.

Lutz’s second three of the night, made it 44-35, which was the score entering the halftime break.
In the second half, the Herd limited its turnovers to just six after ten in the opening half. MU also turned up the defensive effort, holding the Knights (9-7, 1-1 C-USA) to just 37 percent shooting in the second half (13-of-35) and just 2-for-10 from three, after hitting 7-of-13 in the opening half.

Marshall did this despite not having three members of its team. Tirrell Baines is out at least one more week due to a MCL scope a week ago. Antonio Haymon is fighting an intestinal virus, while point guard Damier Pitts was suspended for the game by coach  Jones for a violation of team rules.

Marshall dress ten, but only eight scholarship athletes, and still played great defense and out-rebounded UCF by 37-26.

In the second half, Marshall would get the Knights’ lead under double-digits when Whiteside’s layup made it 51-43 before the first media timeout of the second half.  A Lutz three chipped away at the UCF lead and got it down to seven, 53-46.  Nigel Spikes’ free throws made it 53-48 with 14:07 to go.
With UCF leading 55-50 and a little over 12 minutes to play, Pena was fouled going up for a basket.  He connected on the basket, but missed the free throw.  Whiteside worked his way to the free throw line, and made 1-of-2 attempts.

After a MU defensive stop, a Michael Jordan-like reverse layup by Johnson tied the score (55-55) with 11:39 to play.  Isaac Sosa put the Knights back into the lead with a layup eight seconds later.
The Thundering Herd got a defensive stop which led to another Lutz three-pointer and a four-point advantage for Marshall. Lutz sank another three for a 66-59 MU lead.

UCF scored their first basket in over five minutes on a Keith Clanton layup.  Travis Young’s made 1-of-2 free throws for a 66-62 MU advantage.

Back-to-back Pena and Johnson field goals pushed the lead to eight but Young’s three-pointer got the MU lead down to 70-65.
Spikes was fouled and went to the free throw line at 2:48.  The 6-10 sophomore forward connected on both for a three-possession game (72-65), and Spikes was a perfect 6-of-6 from the line, with seven rebounds, an assist and a steal in 15 minutes.

With 1:28, Wilkerson fired in a three-pointer that gave Marshall an 11-point lead, then he, Whiteside and Lutz combined for 5-of-6 at the line to set the final score at 81-75, only Marshall's second-ever win at UCF.

The win by MU also broke a streak of five straight wins by the home team in the series between the two schools who joined C-USA in 2005.
The Herd has won back-to-back C-USA road games for the first time since joining the league that season, and are 3-0 for the first time in C-USA.

UCF gave out 3,000 "Knightmare" black shirts to its students, who were lined up around the arena at 6 p.m. The school set up a mini-ice rink in front of the arena and "The Blue Man Group" performed at halftime of the MU-UCF game.
Marshall hosts Tulane Saturday night in the Henderson Center.  Tip-off is set for 7 p.m., and fans are encouraged to buy tickets early and online at www.herdzone.com.

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