Herd Men’s Basketball Suffers Loss to Dukes

Box Score | D'Antoni Press Conference

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall University men's basketball team (12-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) made a strong second-half push, but fell in its 2022 finale to the James Madison Dukes (11-4, 2-0 Sun Belt), 72-66, Saturday afternoon in the Cam Henderson Center. It was MU's first home loss of the season.

"That was an intense game," Herd men's basketball head coach Dan D'Antoni said after the contest. "They were very physical. I thought we came out and hadn't experienced that before. They got into us hard and we pushed out a little bit instead of pushing back."

Fifth-year senior Taevion Kinsey collected 18 points and seven assists in the contest, both game highs.

Redshirt senior Andrew Taylor and junior Obinna Anochili-Killen each contributed 16 points in the loss. Anochili-Killen also grabbed five rebounds and rejected three shots.

After trailing 40-29 at halftime, Marshall stepped on the gas pedal by going on a 16-2 run, capped off with a layup by freshman Micah Handlogten, put the Herd on top 49-48 at the 10:53 mark. It was MU's first lead since there was 13:26 left in the first half.

"We started coming back and got ahead by one point, but it's too far down for a good ball club when you miss all your free throws right after that," D'Antoni said. "I thought we had a chance, but you can't go 10-of-21 from the free-throw line. We shot 22 percent from 3-point range and…didn't finish on some plays that could've been and-ones. The game could've turned around."

The Dukes answered with a 15-3 advantage of their own to have the Herd trailing by double-digits, 65-54, with just under four minutes remaining.

Marshall cut the deficit to four, 70-66, with 12 ticks on the clock, but just couldn't jump back in front.

"We'll learn from it," Taylor said about the loss. "We're going to go back tomorrow, watch film, see what happened toward the end of the game. We came back once or twice, but we'll see what happened after that and fix it."

Notes
Both Kinsey and Taylor have scored 10 or more points in all 15 of the Herd's contests this season.

Handlogten grabbed 10 rebounds in the contest, his eighth double-figure rebounding effort this season.

The Herd's 66 points are a season-low.

JMU shot 52.9 percent from the field (27-for-51), the best by any opponent Marshall has faced this season.

Anochili-Killen has recorded double-figure points in his last three contests.

The Dukes scored 38 points off the bench.

UP NEXT
The Herd opens 2023 at Georgia Southern on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Statesboro, Georgia.

For all the latest information about Marshall men's basketball, follow @Herd_MBB 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 or Android!

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Team Stats

Taevion Kinsey

Andrew Taylor

Obinna Anochili-Killen

Micah Handlogten

Players Mentioned

Obinna Anochili-Killen

Micah Handlogten

Taevion Kinsey

Andrew Taylor

Marshall University Athletics