HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Senior Marvin Black (Cleveland, Ohio) scored 23 points and nine rebounds to cap a successful senior night as the Herd knocked out Akron, 78-68, at the Cam Henderson Center Wednesday evening.

Marshall trailed by two, 36-34, at the half, but rallied to outscore the Zips by 12 in the second period. The Herd outrebounded Akron, 20-6 in the closing stanza, while also shooting 52.4% from the floor.

MU started a 12-0 run at the 12:46 mark in the second half to take control of a close contest, making the score 60-49 four minutes later. During that time, Marshall limited the conference’s leading scorer, Zip guard Derrick Tarver, to no points and very difficult looks at the basket. Tarver still finished with 39 points on the night.

Akron never got closer than six points the rest of the way.

In the first half, Marshall got the lead early, but relinquished it as the half came to an end. Tarver kept Akron in the game in the first half, scoring 19 first-half points. Akron’s Andy Hipsher put in a missed Tarver jumper to end the half to give the Zips the two-point lead.

Marshall received another balanced scoring effort from four players in double-digits in the winning effort. Black led the team with 23 points, while David Anderson (Levittown, Puerto Rico) and Enoch Bunch (Nashville, Tenn.) poured in 13 and 11 points off the Herd bench, respectively. A.W. Hamilton (Georgetown, Ky.) also scored in double-figures with ten points.

Besides Tarver’s 39 points, Akron had only one other double-digit scorer in Jeremiah Wood, who scored 11 points and grabbed ten rebounds.

The Marshall win gave the Herd a lift when it comes to hosting a first round MAC Tournament game. If any of these three things happen Saturday afternoon, Marshall will host a tournament game at the Henderson Center Monday night: 1) Herd win over Miami; 2) Akron loss to Buffalo; 3) Western Michigan win over Northern Illinois in Kalamazoo. Even if the Herd and Zips finish in a tie at the end of the regular season, Marshall would win the tiebreaker IF Western Michigan defeats NIU because the next tiebreaker after head-to-head competition would be the teams’ records against the top seeds in the league. Marshall defeated the Broncos earlier this year, while the Zips did not.

Tip-off for Marshall’s final regular season game of the season comes against Miami at 4 p.m. at Millett Hall in Oxford, Ohio. The game will be shown live on the Thundering Herd/ISP Television Network.