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HUNTINGTON - Two weeks ago, at Tulsa, the Herd was coming down the stretch of one of the toughest stretches in team history. Marshall had lost four in a row to WVU (by eight), to UAB (two), to Memphis (three), at Houston (by 15) and were at Tulsa on Feb. 3, where the Golden Hurricane beat MU at the buzzer by four, 73-69.

In that game, Tulsa hit 25-of-31 free throws compared to Marshall's 13-of-19, giving back a lead of some 15 points in the first half.

In that game, Tirrell Baines hardly played, coming off knee surgery, while Hassan Whiteside scored ten points and grabbed only one rebound as the Herd fell to 5-4 in Conference USA and 15-7 overall.

What a difference two weeks can make.

Whiteside poured in a team-high 17 points and Tyler Wilkerson dominated Tulsa's 7-foot Jerome Jordan defensively while picking up the Herd senior's 16th career double-double to lead the Marshall past Tulsa, 64-58, in C-USA action on Feb. 17 at the Cam Henderson Center.

Marshall improved to 19-7 with its fourth consecutive win, the first in five games over Tulsa, and is now just behind Tulsa (19-7, 8-4) and UAB (20-5, 8-3) in the race for the three and four seed heading into the March 10-13 Conference USA Tournament at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

It is also the most wins since Greg White took the Herd to a 21-9 mark in 1999-2000 and the semi-finals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.

“It was a team victory for us tonight, but I also thought we had some good individual performances,” Marshall head coach Donnie Jones said.

“We got some great defensive stops down the stretch,” Jones said.  “How to close out a game is what we learned from our losses.  It was a big victory for our program. Tulsa is a great team and is very well coached.”

Whiteside was in foul trouble both halves, playing only 21 minutes, but did not foul out like at Tulsa. When he returned to the game with nine minutes to go, he grabbed three rebounds in the final minutes of the game and made five of six free throws in the final 5:25 of the game.

Whiteside, a 60 percent free throw shooter, made 4-of-4 from the line in the final two minutes of the game and is now 21-of-24 from the charity stripe in the final five minutes of games this season

The 7-foot freshman made 5-of-11 shots from the field, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four more shots for 135 this season. He needs just 12 more to tie the C-USA single-season record of 143, set by Jordan two seasons ago, and just 13 to tie the MU career record of 148, set by Omar Roland in 1988-90.

Wilkerson scored 10 points, while only shooting 4-of-13, and had 10 rebounds to lead Marshall but his biggest contributions from denying the ball to Jordan, who made just five of nine shots and 3-of-3 at the line.

Wilkerson’s 16 double-doubles is the third most among active Conference USA players. He now has 919 points in his Marshall career, and three blocks tonight give the Lexington, Ky. native 101 blocks in his Thundering Herd career, seventh all-time at MU (Tyrone Phillips is sixth with 102, from 1989-93).

Chris Lutz added 15 points, hitting 8-of-11 at the line, besides his defense, and his only three-pointer of the night gave Marshall the lead with 2:49 to play - a lead the Herd never gave back by hitting 8-of-its-final-10 free throws in the final two minutes.

“I thought Chris Lutz had a great stat line, but that wasn’t what made the difference," said Jones. "I think he guarded the post, the man and anybody else’s man that came off screens.  He was a one-man zone tonight.”

Lutz has now scored 991 career points in his stints at both Purdue (464 from 2005-07) and at Marshall (527 points from 2008-10).

Sophomore point guard Damier Pitts had 13 points, after not playing in the first game with Tulsa while sitting out a suspension. each scored in double figures to propel the Herd to 19-7 overall and 7-4 in conference play.

Tulsa received a 22-point performance from Ben Uzoh and 13 points and 15 rebounds from Jordan in the loss, but the Herd held the rest of the Golden Hurricane to just 23 points.

Tulsa shot only 39 percent shooting from the field and made only 1-of-7 from behind the arc, only 14.3 percent.

The Golden Hurricane is the leader in free throw attempts and makes in C-USA, got to the line only 13 times in the game, making 11 of those attempts.

Marshall, however, got to the line for 21-of-31 in the game, with Whiteside making 7-of-9 along with Lutz's eight points there. MU hit 8-of-10 in the final stretch to put the game away.

A good crowd of 5,324 - the seventh crowd of 5,000 fans or more this season MU has topped that figure and the 22nd time in three seasons under Jones - was on hand on another tough winter weather night to watch MU.

In the six seasons prior to Jones arrival at Marshall in 2007-08, Marshall drew only ten crowds of over 5,000 to the Henderson Center, and five of those ten crowds were for the 2001-02 season of Coach White that was 15-15, while the 2006-07 Herd had no crowds of more than 5,000 fans.

Marshall led 30-25 at halftime, and the Herd led by as much as 11 points late in the first half, but did not score the final 3:08.

Ozuh was the lone player in double figures heading into the locker with 10 points as both teams shot under 35 percent, with TU at 10-of-29 shooting (34.5 percent) and the Herd at 11-of-34 (32.4 percent), although MU also was 3-of-8 from three while Tulsa was 0-for-2.

Tulsa cut the lead to one point, 33-32, three minutes into the second half but Marshall stretched it back out to six at 15:51 to play.

The Hurricane took its first lead of the game since the early minutes of the opening half, when Steven Idlet hit the back end of a pair of free throws, for a 42-41 advantage with 12:32 remaining.

Uzoh continued to drive to the basket and made three-straight shots for the Golden Hurricane to extend its lead to 50-45 and force the Herd into a timeout with 8:06 left.

Out of the time out, first Wilkerson then Whiteside hit to cut the lead to one, 50-49, with 6:56 to go. The Herd stayed close, but would not take the lead until just 3:46 were left to play.

Pitts scooped a layup high off the glass just beyond the outstretched reach of Jordan to help the Herd retake the lead.  After a layup from Uzoh, Lutz buried a trey from the wing and Whiteside made two shots at the line to give the Herd a four-point advantage, 58-54, with 2:08 left.

The Herd sank free throws in the final :51.8 seconds to preserve the 64-58 victory, and to extend the league's second-longest current winning streak to four in a row for Marshall. UTEP, the C-USA leaders at 10-1 in league play, were off tonight but have won a team-record nine in a row, and come to Huntington for Senior Night on March 2.

MU heads back on the road with a trip to New Orleans, La., to play Tulane on Saturday night at 8 p.m. (EST) on WDGG 93.7 FM, The Dawg, and SuperTalk 94.1 FM and AM 930 - WRVC, the flagship stations of the Thundering Herd/ISP Sports Network.

Marshall knocked off the Green Wave in Huntington back on Jan. 16, 89-79, in a game Whiteside had 20 points and 12 rebounds to go with eight blocks.

Tulane fell to 2-10 in C-USA, and 7-18 overall, with a 77-64 home loss to Memphis on Wednesday night. The Green Wave has lost four in a row and is just 4-9 at home this season, 1-5 in league play. The all-time series is 5-5 between the Green and White of Marshall and the the Green Wave of Tulane.

NOTES: A Henderson Center record 11 NBA scouts, player personnel directors or other professionals team reps were on-hand to watch the Marshall-Tulsa game, also topping the nine who were at the first match-up in Oklahoma…Stan Cotten, the former "Voice of the Herd," was in attendance at last night's game. Cotten, who worked with current Herd play-by-play voice Steve Cotton (then known as Steve Glen, to avoid confusion), is now the play-by-play voice of Wake Forest Demon Deacon football and basketball on the ISP Sports Network…Other scored in C-USA last night included SMU winning at home over Rice, 67-58. Marshall travels to Rice for an 8 p.m. (EST) game next Wednesday, Feb. 24.