Marshall University Athletics
Thursday, January 2
Huntington, W.Va.
7:00 p.m.
Marshall University
-77, 10 CUSA
89
vs
69
Rice
-86, 01 CUSA
1
2
F
RICE
35
34
69
MARSHALL
44
45
89
Photo by: Rick Haye
Men’s Basketball Roars into New Year with 20-Point Win Against Rice
1/2/2020 11:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Kinsey led all scorers with 19 points
Box Score | Photo Gallery
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall men's basketball (7-7, 1-0 C-USA) began 2020 with a Conference USA opening win over the Rice Owls (8-6, 0-1 C-USA) by a score of 89-69 on Thursday night at the Cam Henderson Center. The Thundering Herd has now won five of its last six contests and has won its last five C-USA openers.
"Defensively, we were really good," Marshall head coach Dan D'Antoni said after the victory over Rice. "Rice is used to making 10 threes a game and they end up with six, just about half what they usually get. We were up and ready to play. It's one game. You have to win one to win them all. So we'll take the one."
While having 89 points scored, sophomore Taevion Kinsey and junior Jarrod West were the lone student-athletes for MU to score in double-figures with 19 and 15, respectively, but all 12 student-athletes contributed points in the win. Kinsey got his 19 on an 8-for-13 shooting night, while dishing out a game-high eight assists and bringing down four rebounds.
West made six of his eight shots from the field, adding five assists and five rebounds to his stat line in the victory.
Redshirt freshman Andrew Taylor brought down a game-high eight rebounds and scored eight points in the win. Junior Jannson Williams and redshirt freshman Cam Brooks-Harris each rejected a game-high three shots.
The Owls took an early 6-0 lead with a pair of three pointers in the first two minutes of the game. Marshall answered with an 11-0 run across the next three minutes with a dunk by junior Darius George, a three by Taylor and a pair of threes by West as the Herd never trailed or let the game be tied the rest of the game.
MU's next largest run of the half was five and it led by as many as 10, before entering the break with a nine-point lead, 44-35.
Marshall broke the game open in the second half with 8- and 9-0 runs. It also led by as many as 25 points in the second and its lead only dipped below 10 points for a mere 12 ticks of the clock in the final stanza of the contest.
The Thundering Herd took it to the Owls in the paint by doubling its opponent's total 48-24.
NOTES
D'Antoni is now 5-1 in C-USA opening contests.
Tonight's 20-point margin is the largest in a C-USA home opener for the program since the Herd defeated East Carolina on Jan. 19, 2013 by 21 points, 77-56.
Taylor's eight rebounds are a career-high in his young career.
Marshall went 35-of-60 from the field for a 58.3 shooting percentage besting its previous season-high of 58.2 percent against Howard. It's the team's third time this season shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
MU outrebounded Rice 41-26. The +15 margin is the largest of the season and it's now 7-1 when outrebounding its opponent this season after only outrebounding its opponents six times last season.
UP NEXT
Marshall looks to continue conference play in the win column as it hosts North Texas on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Cam Henderson Center.
For all the latest information about Marshall men's basketball, follow @HerdMBB on Twitter and Instagram.
To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS and Android.
---HerdZone.com---
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall men's basketball (7-7, 1-0 C-USA) began 2020 with a Conference USA opening win over the Rice Owls (8-6, 0-1 C-USA) by a score of 89-69 on Thursday night at the Cam Henderson Center. The Thundering Herd has now won five of its last six contests and has won its last five C-USA openers.
"Defensively, we were really good," Marshall head coach Dan D'Antoni said after the victory over Rice. "Rice is used to making 10 threes a game and they end up with six, just about half what they usually get. We were up and ready to play. It's one game. You have to win one to win them all. So we'll take the one."
While having 89 points scored, sophomore Taevion Kinsey and junior Jarrod West were the lone student-athletes for MU to score in double-figures with 19 and 15, respectively, but all 12 student-athletes contributed points in the win. Kinsey got his 19 on an 8-for-13 shooting night, while dishing out a game-high eight assists and bringing down four rebounds.
West made six of his eight shots from the field, adding five assists and five rebounds to his stat line in the victory.
Redshirt freshman Andrew Taylor brought down a game-high eight rebounds and scored eight points in the win. Junior Jannson Williams and redshirt freshman Cam Brooks-Harris each rejected a game-high three shots.
The Owls took an early 6-0 lead with a pair of three pointers in the first two minutes of the game. Marshall answered with an 11-0 run across the next three minutes with a dunk by junior Darius George, a three by Taylor and a pair of threes by West as the Herd never trailed or let the game be tied the rest of the game.
MU's next largest run of the half was five and it led by as many as 10, before entering the break with a nine-point lead, 44-35.
Marshall broke the game open in the second half with 8- and 9-0 runs. It also led by as many as 25 points in the second and its lead only dipped below 10 points for a mere 12 ticks of the clock in the final stanza of the contest.
The Thundering Herd took it to the Owls in the paint by doubling its opponent's total 48-24.
NOTES
D'Antoni is now 5-1 in C-USA opening contests.
Tonight's 20-point margin is the largest in a C-USA home opener for the program since the Herd defeated East Carolina on Jan. 19, 2013 by 21 points, 77-56.
Taylor's eight rebounds are a career-high in his young career.
Marshall went 35-of-60 from the field for a 58.3 shooting percentage besting its previous season-high of 58.2 percent against Howard. It's the team's third time this season shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
MU outrebounded Rice 41-26. The +15 margin is the largest of the season and it's now 7-1 when outrebounding its opponent this season after only outrebounding its opponents six times last season.
UP NEXT
Marshall looks to continue conference play in the win column as it hosts North Texas on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Cam Henderson Center.
For all the latest information about Marshall men's basketball, follow @HerdMBB on Twitter and Instagram.
To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS and Android.
---HerdZone.com---
Team Stats
RICE
MARM
FG%
.373
.583
3FG%
.286
.348
FT%
.760
.524
RB
26
41
TO
16
17
STL
10
9
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
19
FGM
8
3FGM
2
FTM
1
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballF
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