Marshall's Andrew Taylor (0) readies to make a pass as the Marshall University men's basketball team takes on Old Dominion on Saturday, January 14, 2023, inside the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington.
Marshall's Andrew Taylor (0) readies to make a pass as the Marshall University men's basketball team takes on Old Dominion on Saturday, January 14, 2023, inside the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington.
The Marshall men’s basketball team extended its lead to double digits twice in the second half but still needed overtime to defeat Arkansas State on the road Saturday afternoon.
Andrew Taylor tied his season-high in scoring with 27 and Taevion Kinsey added 23, all of which came in the second half and overtime, to help the Herd win its fifth straight contest, 87-78.
The win keeps Marshall (17-4, 6-2 Sun Belt) tied for first place at the top of the Sun Belt Conference standings, while the Red Wolves (9-12, 1-7 SBC) remain at the bottom and have now lost seven straight games in league play.
“This is probably the most physical team we’ve played and they are a lot better than their record shows,” Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni said of Arkansas State. “We knew coming in that we were going to have a hard-fought game, and we made some mistakes trying to close it out.”
Arkansas State scored 48 points in the second half, the most of any half this season, and got the equalizer when Julian Lual stole the Herd’s inbounds pass in the final seconds, which led to a Caleb Fields layup that tied the game at 71-71 at the end of regulation.
Moments earlier, David Early hit a pair of free throws to give Marshall a four-point lead with 20 seconds left, but Markise Davis answered with a shot on the other end and Fields tied the contest with three seconds left.
While D’Antoni knew that the defensive-minded Red Wolves would create issues, D’Antoni might not have imagined he’d navigate the first half with Kinsey on the bench for all but four minutes.
The Herd senior picked up two fouls in the opening minutes and rode the pine the rest of the period, entering the intermission without a shot attempt.
But Kinsey made up for lost time in overtime, scoring eight points in a 13-0 run at the onset of the extra session.
“It motivated me,” Kinsey said of watching his team battle in the first half, entering the break with a 31-23 lead. “Andrew and Kam (told me), ‘Get where you need to, get to your spots in the midrange, because we’re going to need you in the second half.”
It was the second time in as many games Kinsey had seen limited minutes in the first half due to foul trouble after scoring just two points in 14 first-half minutes Thursday at Texas State.
But it didn’t faze the rest of the Herd, which fought, scrapped and clawed for 45 minutes en route to its 17th win of the year.
“We started off good, got up 10, let them come back, obviously went to OT but we battled it out,” said Taylor, who had four assists to go with his game-high 27 points. “I’m just proud of the guys for fighting the whole game.”
Just over two minutes into the second half, Marshall built its then-largest lead of the afternoon, 38-27, but Arkansas State answered with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to a single possession, 42-40.
Marshall scored another eight to push the lead back to 10, then surrendered eight and saw the lead shrink back to two points, 50-48. The two continued to go back and forth for the remainder of regulation, but Marshall never trailed after halftime.
Curfman was the third Marshall player to score in double-digits, getting 16 points on 5 of 10 shooting. Four of his makes were from beyond the arc. Jacob Conner finished with five points and led the team in rebounds with 10.
Avery Felts (18), Fields (17), Davis (14) and Malcolm Farrington (12) each finished as double-figure scorers for Arkansas State, while Omar El-Sheikh finished with nine points and a game-high 15 rebounds.
Marshall returns home Thursday, hosting Louisiana-Monroe at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Red Wolves travel to Southern Miss on the same day.
Luke Creasy is a reporter for The Herald-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @LukeCreasy or reach him by phone at 304-526-2800.
