Marshall Bounces Back to Grab Weekend Split with 87-67 Win At Old Dominion

The Marshall men’s basketball team has been in the habit of letting teams hang around once it builds a lead in recent games, but when the Thundering Herd grabbed a big lead Saturday at Old Dominion there was no coming back for the home team.

The Thundering Herd ran out to a big halftime lead Saturday and kept its foot on the gas in the second half for an 87-67 win against the Monarchs at ODU’s Chartway Arena.

On Friday, Marshall (10-5, 4-4 Conference USA) watched as Old Dominion (9-5, 5-3 C-USA) erased a 21-point MU lead in the second half as the Monarch stole an 82-81 win. Herd coach Dan D’Antoni said after Friday’s game he thought his team got bullied, and on Saturday that was not the case.

“We made our presence known inside,” D’Antoni said after the win. “They were getting bully-balled last night, it was a good effort tonight.”

The Herd was led by matching 18-point performances from senior Jarrod West and redshirt sophomore guard Andrew Taylor. Junior Taevion Kinsey, Conference USA’s leading scorer, finished with 17 in the win for Marshall.

Also for Marshall, sophomore Goran Miladinovic — who played just 13 minutes — nearly recorded a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds.

“We knew coming into this game what we had to do,” Kinsey said. “We came out with the same energy we had the in the first half [Friday]. We played way more physical [today]. We went out there and we did it.”

For Old Dominion, senior Austin Trice scored 16 to lead the Monarchs in the loss.

Marshall returns to action next week when the Thundering Herd is scheduled to host Middle Tennessee on Friday and Saturday at the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington.