— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — After going almost three weeks without a win, Marshall climbed back above the .500 mark Thursday night when it held off Texas State, 77-71.
The victory was a milestone for first-year Thundering Herd head coach Cornelius Jackson in that it was his first within the Sun Belt Conference.
Jackson and his team hope to make it a win streak Saturday with the Troy Trojans in town for a 4 p.m. tip at the Cam Henderson Center. The game can be seen on ESPN+.
Marshall (8-7, 1-1) has won three of five previous meetings with Troy (9-4, 2-0).
Herd guard Dezayne Mingo returned from illness that kept him out of the previous game — a loss at Elon — and scored 23 points against Texas State. Forward Obinna Anochili-Killen added 19 points and six blocked shots.
Troy was also in action Thursday night and picked up a 69-61 win at Appalachian State. Guard Tayton Conerway was the Trojans’ standout in the contest with 16 points and eight assists. Conerway made all four of his three-point attempts.
“They’re physical and tough,” Jackson said. “They play hard and have the reigning Sun Belt Freshman of the Year (Myles Rigsby) and the reigning Sixth Man of the Year (Conerway). They’re really talented, so it’s going to be another war.
“Every game in the Sun Belt is a battle. The games are physical and guys are strong and athletic and they’re coming in wanting war, so we have to be ready.”
Sixth-year Troy head coach Scott Cross has an 89-80 record with the Trojans and is pleased with his team’s strong start to league play, which continued with the most recent contest following a lengthy layoff.
“We got off to a bad start, but our guys responded, and I am proud of them for that,” Cross said. “It was a good all-around game for us. We had some mental mistakes, but we did some great things. We shot the ball extremely well. To out-rebound these guys is a great feather in our cap. Holding them under 40 percent [shooting] was another great thing. It’s a tough place to win. You’re in elevation and we’ve been traveling. It’s our first game back in 11 days. It’s a huge win for the guys.”
Rigsby leads Troy with a 12.4 scoring average and seven teammates average at least 6.6 points.
Sophomore forward Thomas Dowd is Troy’s top rebounder at 5.2.
Mikal Dawson (13.2 ppg), Anochili-Killen (12.8 ppg) and Mingo (11.5 ppg) are Marshall’s scoring leaders, while Nate Martin averages just south of eight rebounds to lead the Herd in that category.