— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall spent the majority of November away from home to start of the season.
The Herd defeated Queens University 89-73 at the Henderson Center on November 6 to begin the regular season. Since then, the Herd played four neutral site contests — one at The Greenbrier Resort’s Colonial Hall against Radford and three in the Cayman Islands Classic last week, before its most recent outing at nationally-ranked Kentucky.
Marshall welcomes a return home and will play host to Miami Ohio at 7 p.m. Saturday in a matchup that can be seen on ESPN+.
Coming off the Kentucky loss in which the Wildcats scored 69 first-half points, Marshall head coach Dan D’Antoni says he saw some hope in defeat.
“It was a tough game,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t want to make any excuses because they would’ve beaten anyone the way they shot. I didn’t think we quit, we stayed organized and we competed all the way to the end.”
Marshall (2-4) now focuses on the Redhawks, which last played Tuesday and picked up an 82-43 win over Division III Spalding University.
Travis Steele is in his second season as Miami’s head coach and has a 15-23 records. He was previously the head coach at Xavier for four seasons.
The Redhawks (3-3) also have wins over Coppin State and Eastern Illinois and have been defeated by Evansville, St. Bonaventure and Sun Belt Conference member Texas State.
The Redhawks are led in scoring by graduate Darweshi Hunter, who averages 13.8 points. He is the only Miami player averaging in double figures. Six other Redhawks average at least 7.3 points.
Miami’s top rebounder is sophomore Jaquel Morris, who takes down 5.7 boards on average.
Junior forward Obinna Anochili-Killen is Marshall’s top scorer at 16 points per game after he scored 22 points at Kentucky. Guard Kevon Voyles (14.8 ppg), forward Nate Martin (13.2. ppg) and senior Kamdyn Curfman (10.2 ppg) also average double figure scoring.
Martin leads the Herd in rebounding at 9.5.
Marshall has struggled from the perimeter and is shooting just 26.4 percent on three-pointers.
After the Miami contest, Marshall remains home for a game Wednesday against Duquesne, followed by road games at Ohio and Toledo.
“We’ll know more about this team in the next few games,” D’Antoni said, “because some of our next few opponents are ranked in the Top 25 among Mid-Majors.”