By David Walsh
DAYTON, Ohio – Marshall used another second-half of the second-half run to defeat Wright State, 80-64, Thursday night in men’s college basketball at the quiet Nutter Center.
The Raiders held a 10-point lead at 45-35 on a basket by Tanner Holden with 15:59 to play. That’s when the Thundering Herd started the comeback.
Taevion Kinsey’s tip-in basket with 12:03 to play gave Marshall a 48-47 lead, its first advantage since 2-0 at the beginning of the game. Kinsey and Jarrod West, the Herd’s two veteran seniors, dominated from that point on.
Kinsey got a dunk with an assist from West to push the lead to 60-49 with 7:21 to go. That basket was part of the 27-6 run by the visitors. That run continued to the end of the game.
Kinsey lead Marshall with a career-high 31 points and West contributed 19 with 15 coming in the second half as the Herd spoiled the home opener for the Raiders. Kinsey’s previous high was 29 last season against Charlotte. The Raiders are now 9-2 in their last 11 home openers.
West also had four steals to become the school’s all-time leader in that category with 210. He needed two coming in to pass Skip Henderson (208).
Trey Calvin paced Wright State with 16 points. Holden, former All-Ohio player at Wheelersburg High School, finished with 13, Loudon Love 11 and Tim Finke 10. Love pulled down 16 rebounds for a double-double, but the team’s top scorer a year ago (15.9 average) had just two points in the second half.
“We go in a drought shooting, then go boom, boom, boom and go up 13 or 14,” Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni said in the post-game radio show. “We’re down double figures, then made a few outside shots. We’ve got a long way to go. We’ll keep working at it.”
Marshall used a similar charge in the final 10 minutes of its opener against Arkansas State on Nov. 27 to win, 70-54, after leading by just three (42-39) midway through the second half.
Kinsey’s and West’s performances are kind of what D’Antoni anticipates before ball goes up. Kinsey, a junior from Columbus, got into a lot of 1-on-1 situations and made the Raiders pay. West just hounded the home team’s fellow guards all evening.
“We put Taevion into 1-on-1 positions,” D’Antoni said. “They had nobody for him. West’s tough, a great leader. He has that will do win.”
Marshall also had a 45-38 edge in rebounds.
“We kind of did it by committee,” D’Antoni said. “We told them that. On defense, we got hands on a lot of balls.”
Due to the Coronavirus, Wright State did not allow fans inside the arena.
Marshall (2-0) will return to action Dec. 9 at the College of Charleston. A game Saturday at Akron has been canceled due to COVID-19 concerns at Akron
At the foul line, Marshall converted 22-of-27 attempts. Wright State, the preseason favorite to win the , Horizon League, connected on just 11-of-24.
Wright State held a 34-29 lead at halftime.
Holden is the son of former Herd basketball standout Rodney Holden, who is in the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame.
Wright State had been scheduled to open the season Nov. 25 against Ohio University in Champaign, Ill. Games against host Illinois (Nov. 26) and North Carolina A&T did not happen as the three-game series got canceled by COVID-19.