SMU was on the brink of its first road victory this season, but the basketball gods clearly were on the side of the Marshall Thundering Herd on Wednesday.

The Mustangs had the ball with 20 seconds left, when head coach Matt Doherty took a timeout to draw up the final play. With about eight seconds left, Derek Williams took the ball to the hoop, but his shot went off the rim and was rebounded by Marshall’s Markel Humphrey.

According to a witness at the game, Humphrey took about two dribbles, heaved the ball from about 70 feet and miraculously banked the shot in to win the game 53-50.

Junior forward Mouhammad Faye led the Mustangs with 17 points. He hit 3-of-4 3-pointers, including one that tied the game 50-50 with 1:51 remaining.

Marshall gave SMU a couple chances to win the game in the closing minutes.

The Thundering Herd turned over the ball twice in the final two minutes, but SMU’s Derek Williams missed a layup with 50 seconds remaining that would have put his team in the lead. On Marshall’s next possession, Robert Nyakundi stole the ball from Chris Lutz, setting up SMU’s final possession.

SMU rallied from a 10-point deficit midway through the first half and led by as many as five in the final six minutes of the second half. The Mustangs outscored Marshall 14-2 in fast-break points.

While SMU blitzed the Thundering Herd in transition, Marshall countered by bottling up the Mustangs’ big men, Papa Dia and Bamba Fall. The duo scored only six points and grabbed eight rebounds. This season, they have combined to average 15.4 points and 13.1 rebounds. Nyakundi, a guard, led SMU with seven rebounds. Williams had six.