Quick Story: WKU fights hard, but falls to Marshall in overtime, 96-93

Marshall trampled Western Kentucky in the season's first meeting in Huntington, West Virginia, winning by double-digits.

The Hilltoppers fought hard in Saturday's contest in Bowling Green, but fell short to the Thundering Herd, losing 96-93 in front of 4,373 fans inside E.A. Diddle Arena.

The loss dropped WKU to 12-13 overall and 4-8 in Conference USA. Marshall moved to 13-12, 9-3 C-USA.

The whole contest was continued traded-baskets. The Herd would score, the Tops would score, and so forth.

The Hilltoppers played a sloppy first half, shooting just 14-of-35 from the field. The first twenty minutes ended with a monster slam dunk by Ben Lawson. WKU trailed 40-39 at intermission.

The remainder of the game was one for the books. It would come down to the wire, as Aaron Cosby would score to tie the match up at 80-80, sending it into overtime.

It would be WKU's second-straight overtime affair. The Tops lost 93-89 in OT at UTEP last Saturday.

No defense was shown in the extra minutes, as both the Hilltoppers and Herd kept trading baskets, but a WKU turnover and a Fredrick Edmond missed free-throw would help Marshall hit a pair of free-throws enroute to the victory.

Fredrick Edmond led the Tops with 25 points, 7 rebounds and four assists and Justin Johnson added 19 points and eleven rebounds. Jon Elmore and James Kelly both had 24 for the Herd.

Western Kentucky is back in action Thursday at 7 p.m. vs. Old Domnion.

-Follow InsideHilltopperSports.com columnist and BigRedsReader.com publisher Tyler Mansfield on Twitter at Twitter.com/RivalsTyler.-