Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval  Watch |  Listen

Herd handles business, rolls by Bluefield

— By David Walsh

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — After about 5 minutes, you could say the Marshall basketball team had enough.

The Rams and Thundering Herd were tied at 10 with 15:33 left in the half, then Marshall went on one of many runs to build the lead to 20 (47-27) at the half. The Herd showed no letup in the second half and breezed to victory, 100-57, Wednesday night at Cam Henderson Center in front of 3,738.

“I thought we did very well on defense in the first half,” the Herd’s Taevion Kinsey said. “Let defense create the offense. We had the ball flowing, spacing the floor. Guys on the bench were excited, stayed ready. We win as a unit. That’s all that matters.”

Kinsey led Marshall (6-3) with 21 points and eight rebounds in 28 minutes. Obinna Anochili-Killen netted 12 points and blocked seven of the team’s 13 shots in 21 minutes. He now has 65 blocks for the season. Freshman Aymeric Toussaint scored 12 as he made all five shots from the floor.

“We got to play everybody,” Herd coach Dan D’Antoni said. “We took care of business. We have to get where we make more threes (9-of-32). Seems like they made more than we did. We’ve got to get that up, 37-38 (percent). Love to get 40. If we get to 37-38, that’ll get us into most ball games.”

Jermiah Jenkins led Bluefield with 20 points. The Rams are 8-3 as this game counted as an exhibition for them. The Appalachian Athletic Conference member made just 23-of-84 shots, including 7 of 40 from 3-point range.

Marshall connected on 42-of-86 shots, but again had trouble at the foul line as it went 7 of 15. The Herd led by overwhelming margins in assists (24-5), bench points (51-16), points in the paint (58-20) and points off turnovers (25-8).

Toussaint said his plan is make the most of his minutes. He logged 10 Wednesday night.

“I knew I had to play hard, run the court,” Toussaint said. “Do what my coach and teammates want me to do and get a (win).”

Kinsey said he enjoyed watching the younger guys get in and perform much like he did early in his career.

“Sit and watch them come in and provide a spark,” Kinsey said. “They’re getting experience playing together. We had to learn that. It’ll clean itself up.”

D’Antoni said he saw the team’s confidence level improve.

“Every great team I know of, they have great communication,” D’Antoni said. “If you challenge them, they’re young men and want to do the right thing. We’ve got to be able to make some shots. I don’t know when it will happen, but I believe it will.”

Marshall’s next game is Saturday at Eastern Kentucky (5-5). Game time is 7 p.m.

The Colonels, who are in the Atlantic Sun Conference, have three faces familiar to Marshall players, coaches and fans — Jannson Williams and Iran Bennett and head coach A.W. Hamilton.

Williams is a 6-foot-9 forward and the redshirt senior transferred there after finishing his career at Marshall. Williams averages 12.6 points and 6.6 rebounds. Bennett also is a Herd transfer.

“They’ll always be family to us,” Kinsey said. “When we step inside the lines, that all goes away. It’s not a personal battle. We know they’re good. We’re good. Got to bring our A game.”

Hamilton is in year three as head coach of the Colonels.. He posted 38 wins combined in his first two years. In his playing days, Hamilton served as a Herd captain for three seasons (2002-2005). He was head coach at Hargrave Military (2011-2017) and an assistant at North Carolina State in 2017-18.

“We root for A.W. and Jannson every time they play except Saturday,” D’Antoni said. “It’s like having a brother. Got so much Marshall connection down there. It’s like brothers competing. We’re going to go after it. When we’re finished, we’ll root for them.”

Eastern Kentucky is coming off loss at No. 16 Southern Cal, 80-68, Tuesday in Los Angeles. The Colonels like to press and fire away from behind the arc. They made 18 triples for a Diddle Arena record in an 85-80 loss to fellow C-USA member Western Kentucky on December 4 in Bowling Green, Ky.

“Hopefully we take our game down there,” D’Antoni said. “We’ve got to be efficient against their press. If anybody complains about the number of threes we take, we’re going down to one school that takes a lot more than we do. We’ve got to shut down their threes, hang out against them and make sure they don’t have a big night from the three-point line. Don’t turn the ball over on the press. If we handle the ball right and correctly against the press, we should get some easy shots. We just have to finish them.”

Hamilton is 0-2 against the Herd.





More Sports

Sports
Doege works diligently to implement Air Raid offense
New Marshall offensive coordinator Seth Doege hopes to provide a spark to the Thundering Herd.
March 29, 2024 - 9:50 am
Sports
Class AAAA Boys Basketball All-State List
Morgantown guard Sharron Young captain of first team.
March 29, 2024 - 9:25 am
Sports
Beanie Bishop posts top 40-yard dash time at Big 12 Pro Day
March 29, 2024 - 1:21 am
Sports
Herbert Hoover improves to 10-0 with 2-1 win over Hurricane
The Huskies collected a pair of victories Thursday in the Guard the Capital Invitational in Charleston.
March 29, 2024 - 12:51 am