HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Memphis faced its first road game in three weeks and remained composed in the hostile environment.
Freshman Derrick Rose scored 19 points and the Tigers used a hot start to the second half to beat Marshall 68-45 on Saturday night.
Playing their first road game since a 10-point win at Cincinnati on Dec. 19, the Tigers (15-0, 2-0 Conference USA) remained one of three remaining unbeaten teams left in Division I.
"I've got a veteran team. I have eight players from that team that won 33 games," said Memphis coach John Calipari. "The three players that we've added, Derrick Rose, Jeff Robinson and Shawn Taggert, are very skilled and very tested.
"We've got a group that's used to it."
That includes a hostile sellout crowd and a scrappy Marshall team that trailed by only seven at halftime.
Memphis needed a big second half from Robert Dozier, who had 14 of his 18 points after the break.
"I told them the first five minutes, if you don't play and you create hope for them, we're going to get beat," Calipari said. "I said you better get out in the first five minutes and take over."
The Tigers did.
Dozier scored the Tigers' first three baskets of the second half for a 39-28 lead with 17 minutes left in the game. Memphis' lead never fell below double digits after that.
Marshall (9-5, 1-1) managed only three baskets over the first 10 minutes of the second half and was held to a season low for points.
First-year Marshall coach Donnie Jones said his team's strength was spent by halftime.
"They just keep coming at you. Our guys exerted all we had in the first half. And I think we ran out of gas. We came out in the second half knowing what we needed to do, but we couldn't do it. I give Memphis credit for that."
Joey Dorsey added 11 points and 12 rebounds for Memphis.
Markel Humphrey and Mark Dorris led Marshall with 12 points apiece.
Rose outdueled Marshall's Tirrell Baines in a battle of two of the conference's top freshmen. Rose made 8-of-15 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers. Baines was limited to eight points, five below his average.
Marshall committed 19 turnovers and shot just 24 percent (7-of-29) from the field in the second half. Dozier scored eight points in the decisive run to start the second half and Rose capped the run with a floater in the lane for a 47-30 lead with 12:29 remaining.
Rose later kept Marshall at bay with seven points in a two-minute span for a 62-44 lead with 4:18 left.
"He's a great player, a great talent," Jones said. "Anytime a guy, when it's not going well, can go into a zone, he's got the ability to do it. We just didn't have an answer for it."
Memphis took the lead for good three minutes into the game but got a first-half fight from the Thundering Herd. Andre Allen hit a 3-pointer and fed Joey Dorsey for a dunk, and Chris Douglas-Roberts then made 3-pointers 46 seconds apart and the Tigers led 28-13 with 8:15 left until halftime.
But Marshall went on an 8-0 run, highlighted by Dorris' 3-pointer and 18-foot jumper, to bring the Thundering Herd within 30-23 with 4:11 left until halftime.
Memphis attempted only nine free throws and made seven, while Marshall was just 10-of-20.
"We didn't score more because we didn't go to the free throw line more," Calipari said.
