— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — For the first time since mid-December, Marshall is on a bit of a roll after winning a second straight game Thursday night by claiming a hard-fought 67-63 victory over Old Dominion.
On Saturday, Marshall (10-16, 3-10) hopes to make it three straight wins, but it must earn a victory against Charlotte, which handled the Herd two weeks ago, 88-64.
Tip-off at Cam Henderson Center is set for 7 p.m., and can be seen on ESPN+.
The 49ers (13-12, 6-7) fell below .500 in Conference USA play Thursday with a 77-67 loss at Western Kentucky.
In the first meeting between the two teams this season, 49ers’ junior guard Jahmir Young scored 24 points to lead five Charlotte double-figure scorers.
Andrew Taylor had a game-high 28 points for Marshall, which was hardly competitive and trailed by 18 points at halftime.
As Marshall has found some recent success, Charlotte enters with three consecutive losses. The setback at Western Kentucky was preceded by defeats to Louisiana Tech and Middle Tennessee State.
One player responsible for Marshall’s sudden burst of success is 7-foot sophomore center Goran Miladinovic. The Tivat, Montenegro native has put together two solid games over the last week in victories over UTEP and the Monarchs, scoring a total of 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting.
Miladinovic also has 18 rebounds and stayed out of foul trouble, only picking up one foul in each contest.
“He’s coming,” Marshall head coach Dan D’Antoni said. “He’s tough in there defensively and his size and presence in there makes a big difference.
“He’s a super young man and if he’s not tired, he’s hard to handle. When he has energy, he’s a load.”
Young leads Charlotte in scoring at 19.5 points per game, which is good for second in C-USA. He’s joined in double-figure scoring by senior guard Austin Butler (12.3 ppg).
Butler is also the 49ers’ top rebounder with an average of six, followed closely by Young who grabs slightly north of 5.5 boards per game.
Young has also accumulated 94 assists and 25 steals.
Charlotte shoots 46.4 percent from the field, 35.7 percent from behind the 3-point line and 77.2 percent from the free-throw line.
Taevion Kinsey remains Marshall’s top scorer at 19.2 points per game, although Kinsey’s scoring numbers have fallen after he sustained a foot injury three weeks ago. Kinsey has been held below his scoring average in each of the last five games he’s played in dating back to a January 27 loss to Middle Tennessee.
Sophomore guard Andrew Taylor (13.6 ppg) and freshman forward Obinna Anochili-Killen (12.5 ppg) also score in double-figures. Anochili-Killen, at 6.4 rebounds on average, leads MU. Taylor (5.3 rpg) and Kinsey (5.2 rpg) are also two of the team’s top rebounders.
Even with two recent wins, Marshall’s shooting could use improvement as the Herd shoots 43.8 percent from the field, 28.7 percent from 3-point territory and 70.2 percent from the foul line.
After Saturday’s game, Marshall returns to the road Monday at Southern Miss. The 8 p.m. contest at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi is a makeup game for one originally scheduled to be played on New Year’s Day. It was postponed due to COVID-19 issues in the Golden Eagles program.