— By Bill Cornwell
With Marshall’s losing streak having reached double digits, things get no easier Saturday for the Thundering Herd with perhaps the top team in Conference USA in Huntington.
West Division co-leader UAB will battle the Herd at 7 p.m. at Cam Henderson Center, with the contest being shown on ESPN+.
Marshall (7-13, 0-7) was an 81-79 loser to Middle Tennessee on Thursday, marking the Herd’s 10th consecutive loss.
UAB (17-4, 7-1) has won four straight games and picked up a key 68-65 victory Thursday at Western Kentucky on a Jordan Walker 3-pointer with 5 seconds left. The Blazers are in a three-way tie with North Texas and Louisiana Tech atop C-USA’s West Division
The frustration is mounting for Marshall as the Herd last won on December 11 at Eastern Kentucky. While the struggles have been anything but pleasant, Herd head coach Dan D’Antoni doesn’t see any quit in his unit.
“Our shooting stats are going up and we played hard,” D’Antoni said. “As hard as this is now, we’re going to keep working.
“We’ve got to slug it out and get better as we work to eliminate mistakes.”
Marshall’s statistical leaders didn’t change after the MTSU loss, as junior guard Taevion Kinsey leads the Herd with a 20.7 scoring average, followed by junior guard Andrew Taylor and freshman forward Obinna Anochili-Killen. Anochili-Killen also leads Marshall in rebounding at 6.5 per game.
Andy Kennedy, a former head coach at Cincinnati and Ole Miss, is in his second season coaching at his alma mater, and has a 39-11 record with the Blazers.
Walker, a junior guard, leads UAB in scoring at 18.1 points per game. He also shoots well from behind the 3-point line at 42.8 percent, and is nearly automatic at the free throw line at 88.7 percent.
Graduate guard Quan Jackson (11.3 ppg) and junior forward KJ Buffen (10.3 ppg) also average scoring in double figures. Junior center Trey Jemison is the Blazers’ top rebounder at 7.7 per contest, followed closely by Buffen at 7.1 rebounds per game.
UAB shoots 37.9 percent from long range.
The Blazers and Thundering Herd have met 29 previous times and UAB has won 21 of those contests. The teams last played in the 2019-2020 season, an 88-80 Blazers win in Birmingham.
After Saturday’s game, Marshall returns to the road next week with Conference USA games Thursday at Old Dominion and Saturday at Charlotte.
New Game Date
Marshall’s road game at Southern Miss originally set for New Year’s Day has now been moved to February 21. No game time has been set. COVID-19 issues in the Southern Miss program caused the original postponement. The new date means Marshall will play three games in five days – home games on February 17 vs. Old Dominion and February 19 vs. Charlotte before facing the Golden Eagles.