HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—Cheikh Sane scored a career-high 16 points and matched sophomore Ryan Taylor for the team high as Marshall won it season opener 74-55 over Jacksonville State.
“”I really like the offense better than last year,” Sane said. “Everybody is free to do whatever they want. I can just be me and play the game. Listen to Coach, get the concept, and play hard going to the basket.”
Austin Loop hit four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points in his first career start. Loop, a walk-on sophomore, played only 75 minutes last season.
“It was a long time in waiting and I enjoyed every second of it,” D’Antoni said after Marshall won its opener for a ninth straight season. “I thought our players played very hard, and defensively were very good.”
For the most part, D’Antoni was pleased with his team’s debut performance.
“I thought we got the lead up to 24, right in that area (66-42 with 5:54 left),” he said. “I thought we relaxed a little bit and you can’t do that. The style of game we play, you’ll find as the season goes around you can be up 24 and then down four in the next five minutes.
“So, we don’t quit playing. We’re going to keep playing wide-open basketball, and so we’ve got to make sure we maintain our intensity level at all times.
“Offensively, we were a little bit weak, but that’s to be expected because there were a lot of guys out there playing for the first time and that showed a little bit. But I think they’ll do better as the year goes through.”
The Herd has one of those NCAA Tournament-like quick turnarounds, as Savannah State (0-1) visits the Henderson Center on Sunday for a 4 p.m. tip. The Tigers also opened Friday night, with a 76-53 loss at Eastern Kentucky. Savannah had 33 turnovers in the loss.