Marshall Women’s Basketball Preview
By Ben Anderson, FM88 Sports Director
Jan. 26, 2026
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) —Despite the winter storm Fern making its rounds across the east coast, the Marshall Thundering Herd welcomes the Troy Trojans to the Cam Henderson Center on Wednesday night in a battle of top four teams in the Sun Belt Conference.
Marshall enters the contest with a 17-5 record and winning eight of its first 10 games in league play to sit in second place. The Thundering Herd is winners of back-to-back games, after picking up road wins in consecutive days against Southern Miss and ULM.
Troy comes to Huntington with an overall record of 16-4 (7-2) and sitting in fourth place. The Trojans picked up its seventh league victory on Saturday afternoon, picking up a dominate 96-69 victory over the Georgia State Panthers in Troy, Ala.
The contest matches up the best scoring offense against the second-best scoring defense in the Sun Belt Conference. The Trojans average 84.4 PPG and have a +16.3-scoring margin. The Thundering Herd is allowing 61.6 PPG.
Both teams are led by tenured head coaches at the collegiate level with Marshall being led by second-year head coach Juli Fulks who spent 10 seasons at Division III institute Transylvania with a record of 400-143 with the Pioneers and is currently 32-25 at Marshall. Troy is led by Chanda Rigby who enters her fourteenth season as the all-time wins leader at Troy and is just one game away from reaching 500 career wins.
One of the biggest statistical storylines entering the contest is the strength of Troy on crashing the boards. The Trojans are top three in the NCAA in Rebounds Per Game at 50.8. The Trojans rank first in the league in both offensive rebounds per game (18.3) and defensive rebounds per game (32.5). It will be crucial for the Marshall to keep up on the glass as the Herd only averages 35.6 RPG and allows 39.2 RPG, which is near the bottom of the Sun Belt Conference.
Despite the two teams only meeting in three prior contests, the Trojans have the Herd’s number, as it is undefeated against the Herd with all three games coming in Sun Belt Conference Play.
The last time these two teams met was last season in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Quarterfinals as the Trojans ended the Thundering Herd’s historic tournament run, defeating the Herd 85-54.
With a win, Marshall can control its own destiny in terms of Sun Belt Conference Tournament seeding and carry a three-game winning streak into Saturday’s matchup against Louisiana.
The game will be broadcast on the Cutting-Edge Sports Radio Network on WMUL-FM 88.1 and online on stream 1 at marshall.edu/WMUL. FM88 Sports’ Ben Anderson & Nate Courtney will have the call with pregame coverage at 5:30 p.m. and tip-off at 6 p.m.