— By David Walsh
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall University had the Cam Henderson Center crowd on its feet and loud as it opened a 19-point lead over Conference USA rival Western Kentucky.
A layup by Taevion Kinsey with 1:17 left on the clock extended the advantage to 37-18, before the Hilltoppers got within 39-25 by halftime.
In the second half, Western Kentucky’s shots dropped, the Herd’s inside game disappeared and the Hilltoppers’ press took its toll. Western Kentucky ultimately completed the uphill grind and departed a winner, 64-60, in the first of two meetings between the teams this week.
Marshall had 21 turnovers and the Hilltoppers scored 18 points off the miscues.
“You saw us at our best and no so good,” Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni said. “We didn’t get the ball inside like we did in the first half. Twenty-one turnovers, they score 18, you don’t win.”
Herd guard Jarrod West and 6-foot-9 big man Iran Bennett felt there were too many miscues to win.
“The mistakes. That’s it in a nutshell,” West said. “They didn’t do anything we didn’t know about. The press bothered us more. We have to close out halves better. We didn’t play the whole second half.”
“The big men had to step up,” Bennett said. “We tried our best to create a mismatch down low. You have 21 turnovers, can’t win like that”
It’s a quick turnaround for the two teams as the rematch is at 7 p.m. Saturday in Bowling Green, Ky.
Western Kentucky (13-6) leads C-USA at 6-1. The Herd drops to 9-11 and 3-4 in the league.
On the comeback trail, Jared Savage hit a three-pointer with 6:35 left to tie the game at 58. Jordan Rawls converted a layup with 5:08 to go to give the Hilltoppers the lead for good at 60-58. Rawls nailed a jumper with 3:43 to go to make it 62-58.
Marshall’s final points came on Kinsey layup with 2:19 to play to cut the deficit to two, 62-60.
Bennett and West then missed shots and Taevon Hollingsworth calmly sank two free throws with 19 seconds left to set the final score.
Goran Miladinovic, the Herd’s other big man, injured his right leg with 9:37 left and did not return. D’Antoni said Miladinovic appeared to be OK.
“We’ve got to figure out why we shut down, or didn’t get inside the second half,” D’Antoni said. “We’ll study the turnovers and cure that. Most are bad decision making. The first half once we got the ball down inside, we did good. You make mistakes against a good team like Western and they burn you with it.
“The first half, we played a lot freer. The second, it was like we were happy to get the ball across midcourt.”
Bennett finished with 14 points and Miladinovic eight before being forced to exit. West and Marko Sarenac had 10 each. Kinsey, the Herd’s leading scorer at 15.8, totaled just eight and played all 40 minutes.
Hollingsworth led Western Kentucky with 20 points. Carson Williams, in his first game in this series, added 15 and Savage 14 as the Hilltoppers extended their win streak to four.
“When your’re down 19, it’s not easy,” Hilltoppers coach Rick Stansbury said. “The guys deserve all the credit. They’re hard to defend inside. They killed us the first half. Made some shots the second half and got more stops. When you make shots, everything works better. Gives you confidence.”
“We showed a lot of fight,” Williams said. “We have to find a way to put 40 minutes together.”
The Herd had seven blocked shots to increase the season total to 126 and seven steals to bring that total to 185.
WKU is now 17-12 all-time against Marshall and Stansbury’s mark is 4-4 against Marshall.