Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
-711,05 CUSA
FIU
-117,14 CUSA
Marshall Men’s Hoops Falls Short at FIU
1/20/2022 10:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Kinsey scores game-high 25 points
Box Score | D'Antoni Press Conference
MIAMI, Fla. – The Marshall University men's basketball team (7-11, 0-5 C-USA) came up short in Miami as it fell 70-66 on Saturday night to the FIU Panthers (11-7, 1-4 C-USA).
"We make untimely mistakes at the wrong time," Thundering Herd men's basketball coach Dan D'Antoni said after the loss. "We had an eight-point lead and a seven-point lead. We had them on the run and then we made a defensive mistake, a lack of a block out, miss an open shot or turn the ball over. It's perplexing because we'll play well for a while and look pretty good like we're moving forward. Then we'll make some puzzling plays."
Junior Taevion Kinsey tallied a game-high 25 points on an 8-for-16 shooting night. The guard added six rebounds and three assists to his stat line.
Redshirt sophomore Andrew Taylor followed with 15 points as freshman Obinna Anochili-Killen scored 11 and freshman David Early added 10. Anochili-Killen also snagged six boards.
FIU's Clevon Brown recorded a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Brown made eight of his 11 attempts from the field.
The Panthers made the first two baskets of the contest and led 4-0 at the 17:52 mark.
After trading points for the next four minutes, MU went on a 9-0 streak. Kinsey made a pair of free throws, Taylor drilled a three, freshman Chase McKey and Anochili-Killen each added a layup. It took a 16-10 advantage with 12 minutes remaining in the opening stanza.
A 5-0 streak by FIU put the Herd down 25-24 with just over five minutes left in the first half. However, Marshall closed out the first 20 minutes of play by scoring seven of the final 11 points to lead 31-29 at the break.
MU opened the second half on an 8-2 run with Kinsey contributing five points and Early three as it had an eight-point lead, 39-31.
The Green and White maintained its lead for the next seven minutes, but Panthers used a 10-0 streak to jump ahead 58-53 with just under nine minutes left on the clock.
The Herd fought hard down the stretch. It went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to four, 68-64, with 54 ticks left in the game. FIU guard Tevin Brewer hit a pair of attempts from the charity stripe to extend the home side's lead to six, 70-64 with 27 seconds remaining. Taylor answered with a layup as seven ticks came off the clock.
The Panthers missed the front end of a one-and-one in the dawning moments of the game twice, but Marshall couldn't convert at the offensive end as it fell by four in Miami.
NOTES
Kinsey reached his 52nd consecutive outing in double-figure scoring. The Columbus, Ohio native notched his 13th game of 20 points this season.
The Herd made a three in its 988th consecutive game, with the last contest without a triple occurring on Feb. 27, 1989, in a win over App State.
George played in his 129th career game, passing Ryan Taylor (2013-17) for fourth most games played in program history.
Anochili-Killen notched his 15th game of 10 or more points this season as Taylor recorded his 12th such game.
Early tallied 10 or more points for the third time during the 2021-22 campaign.
Kinsey has 1,717 points in his career. He is the 11th student-athlete in Herd men's basketball history to reach the 1,700-point plateau and passed Leo Byrd (1956-59) for 11th-most points in program history.
UP NEXT
MU closes out its Florida road trip at Florida Atlantic on Saturday at 4 p.m.
For all the latest information about Marshall men's basketball, follow @HerdMBB on Twitter and Instagram.
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---HerdZone.com---
