— By David Walsh
Troy raced to a 16-point lead early in the second half, saw Marshall get within four points late, but made the plays needed down the stretch to prevail 70-63 in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams in front of 2,181 fans Saturday at Trojan Arena in Troy, Ala.
The Trojans led 52-36 with 16:09 left in the game. The Herd then began its charge and pulled within two at 62-60 with 3:08 left on a score by Wyatt Fricks.
At that point, Thomas Dowd, Victor Valdes and Connor Campbell took over to save the day for the Trojans.
Dowd scored with 2:35 left for a 64-60 lead. At 1:44, Jalen Speer missed the front end of the bonus and Troy got the rebound. Valdes got a layup with 1:26 to play for a 66-60 lead. Marshall turned the ball over with 1:13 on the clock. With 1:08 to go, the Herd fouled Campbell and he made both free throws for a 68-60 cushion.
Bryce Slay connected on a three with 55 seconds left to make it 68-63. Valdes counted with two foul shots with 35 seconds left to set the final score. Wilson Dubinsky missed a three for the Herd 26 seconds on the clock, the Trojans got the ball back and ran out the clock.
As Marshall head coach Corny Jackson saw it, the Trojans made the plays needed down the stretch while his squad came up virtually empty. On the last seven attempts, the Herd got nothing out of them.
“Players have to be players. We beat them in a lot of categories,” Jackson said. “Points off turnovers, we won that battle. Second-chance points, we win that battle. Fast break points, we won that. Battle bench we won. We just didn’t win the game.”
Marshall (7-5, 0-1) back in action Tuesday at home against West Virginia Tech. Tip is 7 p.m. at Cam Henderson Center.
Troy, which won the SBC Tournament last year, is 8-5. The Trojans made just 2 of their last 10 shots.
Valdes and Theo Seng led Troy with 18 points each. Dowd closed with 13. Valdes and Seng each had three threes and the team closed with nine. The Herd had eight.
Noah Otshudi led the Herd with 22 points. Speer finished with 13 but went 2-of-9 from three. Fricks totaled 10 points before fouling out. Matt Van Komen, the 7-4 transfer from Elon, got eight rebounds, but just two points.
The shooting, as Jackson put it, must get better.
“We’ve got to get more consistency out of our guys,” Jackson said. “When you’re wide open, we’re expecting guys to make shots. I think we will. Talk about the three-point line. Guys who normally make those shots didn’t. Wyatt 0-of-6, Jalen 2-of-9, don’t leave him out. I like the look we’re getting. Maybe we need to spend more time in the gym. I watch a lot of college basketball. Mid-major, low mid-major, major division, division II, division III. When guys get wide open shots they make the shot.
Marshall’s Erich Harding contributed nine rebounds.
“The bright spot for our team,” Jackson said. “Told him the locker room if you can play like that the rest of the year you can help us in a major way. He was physical, he was tough.”
Troy now is 4-3 all-time in the series with Marshall.