Marshall takes care of business, tops Southern Miss, 74-60

— by David Walsh

Marshall once again learned a valuable lesson Monday night in its Conference USA win over Southern Miss, 74-60, at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi: Put two halves together, high energy from start to finish.

The Thundering Herd did just that at the outset, using a 10-0 run in the early stages to build a 12-2 lead and continued to thrive on that momentum for the 20-point cushion at halftime 45-25.

Southern Miss, though, wouldn’t go away even though it came in on a nine-game losing streak. The Golden Eagles cut the deficit to nine twice at 55-46 with 8:20 to play and 58-49 with 5:52 on the clock.

Each time David Early connected on 3-point shots to push the margin back to 12 and the Thundering Herd brought it home from there.

“First half was great, the second half we lose focus,” Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni said. “We started to do things I haven’t seen since the playground. Energy level. I told them that. Staying focused. Learn to put that foot down when you’re ahead.”

Marshall (11-17, 4-11 C-USA) returns to action Thursday at Middle Tennessee State. Tip is 7 p.m.

Andrew Taylor led Marshall with 17 points and Taevion Kinsey added 16. Early, with four triples, closed with 13. Early has made eight of his last nine tries from 3 over the past two games.

Isaih Moore paced the Golden Eagles (6-21, 1-13 C-USA) with 19 points. Tyler Stevenson added 13 and 10 rebounds for a double-double.

Kinsey agreed with his coach about energy levels each half.

“Bring our own energy. We had to,” Kinsey said. “We controlled the first half. In the second, we got a little lax. Took the foot off the gas. Still pretty much in control of the game.”

Southern Miss used an 11-0 run, combined with a Herd scoring drought for five-plus minutes, to get within nine at 53-44. Kinsey would hit two free throws and Early would follow with the threes to thwart any comeback hopes for the home team.

“As soon as you see it (Early’s three with 7:10 left) go in, that’s all you need,” Kinsey said. “It gets the guys rolling. David shot it well. Loved it. He provided a spark.”

“Relief,” D’Antoni said about that Early three. “You could see the energy wasn’t at the same level. Players have got to make sure they want to finish off games.”

Marshall leads the all-time series with Southern Miss 17-9.

Kinsey has 1,838 points for his career, No. 6 in program history. He just passed J.R. Vanhoose and Russell Lee.
Middle Tennessee beat UTEP on Monday, 77-59, at home. The Blue Raiders lead C-USA East at 11-3 (20-7 overall). They have won 13 straight home games (15 dating back to the end of last season).

In the first game against Marshall, the Blue Raiders trailed, 79-75, with 1:04 left and then scored six straight points to get the win.

“We’re hungry,” Kinsey said. “We let one slip away in our gym. Bring energy. Play Marshall basketball like we’ve been doing.”

A word of caution from D’Antoni.

“We can’t play the second half like we did tonight,” D’Antoni warned.





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