— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall hopes to maintain homecourt momentum Saturday when the Old Dominion Monarchs visit the Cam Henderson Center for a 7 p.m. Sun Belt Conference game.
The contest has been announced as a sellout and will be shown on ESPN+.
The Thundering Herd (14-4, 3-2) put on an offensive show Thursday night in an 89-67 dominating victory over Southern Miss. The Monarchs (10-7, 2-3) lost on their home floor to Coastal Carolina 67-66 the same night.
Jeff Jones is in his 10th season as Old Dominion’s head coach and the former University of Virginia standout has a 183-115 record in Norfolk. Over 30 years, Jones has a 540-402 career record as he previously served as head coach at Virginia and American.
Marshall head coach Dan D’Antoni expects the Monarchs to be a motivated group and their approach will be a challenge for his team.
“Jeff plays a tough style,” D’Antoni said. “It’s a little tighter and they’re not going to press us down the floor and open the floor up, so we’ll have to find shots the old fashioned way.”
Old Dominion has three players who average double-figure scoring in Northeastern transfer Tyreek Scott-Grayson (14.6), sophomore guard Chaunce Jenkins (12.9) and Xavier transfer Ben Stanley (10.9). Junior guard Mekhi Long leads the Monarchs in rebounding at 7.7 per game.
While Marshall averages better than 82 points, ODU gives up just over 66 points per contest.
With a win on Saturday, Marshall would climb closer to the top of the Sun Belt standings. Currently, the Herd is in a fifth-way tie for third place, one game behind leaders Troy and Georgia Southern, who have 4-1 league records.
Old Dominion is two games behind the leaders and a game back of Marshall in the standings.
The teams were both members of Conference USA before heading to the Sun Belt Conference this season. They’ve met 26 previous times and both have won 13 of the matchups.
After the Herd wraps up a three-game home stand Saturday, it’s back to the road next week for Sun Belt Conference games on Thursday at Texas State and Saturday at Arkansas State.