— By David Walsh
Marshall basketball experienced something Tuesday night it hadn’t encountered in quite some time: Playing from behind and eventually being behind when the final buzzer sounded.
UNC Greensboro hit two 3-point baskets in the closing stages of the first half to take a 34-33 lead at intermission.
The Thundering Herd’s Kamryn Curfman nailed three straight 3s for a 57-53 lead with 9:31 left in the contest played in front of 1,089 fans inside the Greensboro Coliseum.
Keyshaun Langley responded with a trey and Keondre Kennedy nailed a basket with 8:24 left to put the Spartans (5-6) ahead to stay, 58-57. They would pull away from that point with the biggest spread coming at 10 twice in the closing three minutes and the Southern Conference member snapped the Herd’s win streak at nine with a 75-67 triumph.
“We didn’t come with energy from the jump,” the Herd’s Taevion Kinsey said. “It starts at the beginning. You’ve got to do things right from the start. This isn’t a game where you want to trail the whole game, especially on the road. We were a step slow everywhere. Rotation was slow everywhere. Definitely an energy thing.”
Langley finished with 18 points including four treys. Kennedy added 14 points and Bas Leyte 10.
UNCG came in shooting 41 percent from the field and finished at 44 on 28-of-63 shooting. From long range, the Spartans made 10 of 24 for 42 percent and 9-of-11 free throws (82 percent). The Herd was just 27 of 72 (38 percent), including 6 for 26 behind the arc and a dismal 7 of 16 on free throws.
Freshman Micah Handlogten, the Herd’s 7-foot-1 man in the middle, played only 16 minutes due to foul trouble.
“You’ve got to give credit,” Herd coach Dan D’Antoni said. “They made a lot more shots than they normally do. Didn’t miss any free throws hardly. Not having Handlogten the whole ball game hurt. Changed our approach quite a bit. Goran (Miladinovic) gave us three, four good minutes. He’s (Micah) a big part of what we do. He’s got to play 25-30 [minutes].”
Then there was the quick turnaround right before the half. In the second, Curfman, who missed his first eight shots, rattled off three straight treys to put Marshall up four (57-53). Then came a three and two from UNCG for the lead as the Spartans reeled off 15 of the next 17 points to take control. The Herd made just two field goals the final seven minutes.
Curfman finished 3 of 14 overall and 3 of 11 from behind the arc.
“We never got into a rhythm. Didn’t have the energy we usually have,”D’Antoni said. “That turns into alibis and I don’t want to do that. That’s the way it is. We have to fight through this and we will.
“You run into teams that will gear up for you. They played Arkansas to the wire. We’re up five and they hit two threes. Mental mistakes, it’s not what they did. Just never seemed to get going. We were a little brain dead in doing a few things.
“It’s frustrating for Cam, it’s frustrating for us. He’s a career 40-percent three-point shooter. He’s won some games for us. If you could tell me when he’s going to miss, I’d tell him not to shoot. Shooters shoot and that’s what he came for. You live and die with it. I think we’ll live with it more than we die from it.”
This was the Herd’s final non-conference road game of the season. Marshall (9-2) returns home Saturday to face Mid-American Conference member Toledo. Tip at Cam Henderson Center, where a new floor will be on display, is 3:30 p.m. Glenville State visits Monday at 7 p.m. Then it’s time to start Sun Belt Conference play Dec. 29 at home against Appalachian State.
During a late timeout, D’Antoni had a purpose for calling it. Now, after a day off today, the Herd gets back to work to face a talented Toledo team.
“Six-of-26 (threes). Tired legs,” D’Antoni said. “It’s a lot easier to teach out of wins than losses. A lot of it is what they did. We can be better. You play through games, not quitting. I wanted to rest their resolve.”
Kinsey, just named the Sun Belt Player of the Week for a second time, knows everyone has to pick up the pace.
“Got to have a short memory,” Kinsey said. “Figure out what we need to work on and go from there. Free throws definitely a mental thing. As a unit, we’re going to shoot free throws. You have to step up with confidence knowing that these are free points. I don’t like losing.”
Marshall and UNCG are 1-1 now in this series. It was the first loss for the Herd since the season opener November 7 at Queens College in Charlotte to make Marshall’s record 0-2 against teams from North Carolina to this point.