Centreville's Size Too Much for Marshall

On a frigid night in Falls Church, the Centreville Wildcats (3-2) held off a late charge, defeating the Marshall Statesmen (1-4), 61-50 behind a dominating, physical performance from Cameron Owens, a senior forward who scored 15 points, all but two of them in the second half.

"Their size was a problem for us," admitted first-year Marshall Coach, Dan Hale, who played college ball at Hawaii and Chaminade, and starred in Japan before moving to Virginia to be close to family last year. "We'd get them to take a shot but then we couldn't get a rebound off of it. Give them credit they worked really hard on the offensive boards, and we just couldn't come up with those bounces when we really needed to."

The Wildcats led the contest from the opening whistle, leading by as many as 20 points at one point in the second half before the Statesmen stepped up their play in the fourth quarter to prevent a blowout.

The Cats used their big men, Owens, Travis Whitney, and Ken Ekanem, who is also a highly touted football recruit, to control the boards and the game.

"We wanted to get the ball inside and control the rebounding and we did that," said Centreville Coach Drew Murphy. "It was good to get a win; we haven't won on the road yet, so that was nice. Marshall played hard. We have plenty to improve on but we did enough to win tonight."

Marshall used a full-court press to start the game, and it seemed to rattle the Wildcats early on. The Statesmen forced several early turnovers, but repeatedly missed layups that might have set the game off on a different course.

Aaron Aggen led Marshall with 22 points, hitting six 3-pointers on nine attempts.

"I'm a 3-point shooter, I developed my shot over the summer with Coach Hale," Aggen said. "He helped me get my form and helped me learn how to elevate on my shot."

The Wildcats received strong guard play from Drakkar Sanders, and punishingly effective, physical play from forwards Ekanem and Whitney, who finished with 11 points each.

Despite the early seasons struggles and bone chilling weather, Hale has no regrets about leaving his native Hawaii, and he firmly believes that his team is poised for a turnaround.

"I was proud of our guys, we played hard, we played all the way to the end, and that's all I can ask of them," he said.  "Every day is a different day, we have young, inexperienced guys. Even our seniors are inexperienced. Our mission is to get everyone on the same page. Once we do that, we'll be fine."

And once the Statesmen heat up, Hale will feel right at home.