— By David Walsh
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The edge Marshall exhibited in the first half vanished in the second.
That allowed Toledo, down 38-27 at intermission, to locate a spark, outscore the Thundering Herd by 16 points over the final 20 minutes and exit Cam Henderson Center with an 81-76 win in a Saturday matinee in front of 3,727 fans.
“Came out in the second half, relaxed for whatever reason. We didn’t have the same juice we had in the first half,” Marshall coach Corny Jackson said. “Told the guys at halftime the most irrelevant score is the halftime score. Toledo’s a culture team. They’re used to winning. They’re not going to stop playing just because we’re up 11. I thought we gave the game away. It’s a huge lesson for us.”
Marshall (1-1) returns to action Monday against Ohio State in Columbus. Tip at Value City Arena is 7 p.m. The Big 10 Network will air the game live.
Toledo, coming off a 91-61 loss Thursday at No. 6 Michigan State, had its shooting woes until midway through the second half. The Rockets endured one stretch of 0-of-12 and 1-of-14 from the floor.
In the second half, Marshall held a 46-38 lead when Djigo Boubacar hit a jumper with 14:21 left. Mynor Strong countered for the Rockets (1-2) at 14:11 to get within six (46-40) and the comeback/see-saw finish was on.
At 10:44, Angel Montas Jr. scored on fastbreak layup off a Marshall turnover to tie the game at 54-54. Austin Parks made a jumper with 9:57 to play to give the visitors their first lead, 56-55.
Noah Otshudi scored on a dunk with 6:49 left to put the Herd back on top, 64-63. The game would go back-and-forth from that point. With 13 seconds left, Otshudi again scored to pull the Herd within two at 78-76.
Forced to foul, the Rockets got two free throws from Montas Jr. and one from Mynor Jones to set the final score as Otshudi and teammate Emmanuel Manyoun each missed two tries for three.
Strong and Montas Jr. each finished with 20 points. Jaylan Ouwinga and Sean Jones added 11 each. The Rockets made 20-of-36 shots in the second half and 12-of-16 free throws. For the game, Toledo went 20-of-35 at the charity stripe to 8-of-12 for the Herd.
Bryce Slay nailed four straight treys in the first half and finished with a game-high 23 for the Herd. Otshudi followed with 22. Eric Harding grabbed 13 rebounds.
“It looked like we were tired. I’m not sure why,” Jackson said. “They had just played. They had that stretch run where we turned the ball over, they made three or four layups and that really changed the game.”
Jackson noted the disparity in free-throw attempts – 35 for Toledo to 12 for Marshall.
“Not sure we fouled that many times,” Jackson said. “We had more energy the first half, were more physical. We had some silly fouls, pushing, reaching, grabbing. They’re picked second in their league (Mid-American Conference) for a reason.”
Jackson knows there’s little down time before Monday’s game. Watch film, travel to Columbus and strive to fix the mistakes from Saturday.
“Correctable. Sure,” Jackson said. “We put together a good half, did not put the second half together. They say there’s a valuable lesson learned in every loss. I say we did not protect home court. I thought we gave the game away.”
Otshudi believes the Herd can pick up the pieces from that setback.
“Basketball’s a game of runs,” Otshudi said. “The first half we were rolling. The second we lost our intensity. It was lacking. We let them get out in transition.
“It gets real now. A Big Ten team next. We have to look inside and know what beat us. We have to show what we’re made of.”
Toledo’s series lead is now 41-25. The Rockets have won eight of the last 10 meetings.