The Marshall University men’s basketball team picked up its second win of the season on Thursday evening against the Howard University Bison with a final score of 91-63.

Marshall Head Coach Dan D’Antoni picked up his 98th win.

“It was a good ball game,” D’Antoni said. “I thought we handled pick-and-rolls better. We worked on it the last couple of days. That’s more like our team.”

The Herd improved its record to 2-3 on the season as the Bison lost its sixth straight contest and are 0-6 on the season.

This game served as a “purple out” for junior forward Mikel Beyers as he tragically lost his stepbrother, Peyton, last Friday. Beyers said purple was Peyton’s favorite color. Fans wore purple as the team wore purple socks and wristbands in honor.

Redshirt sophomore forward Iran Bennett led the Herd in points with 17 (7-12). Redshirt junior forward Jannson Williams followed with 15 (6-8), sophomore guard Taevion Kinsey had 14 (7-8) and junior guard Jarrod West collected 11 (5-for-10).

Kinsey also led the Herd in assists with 14 and gathered seven rebounds.

“I feel like that’s how we got to play every game,” Kinsey said. “We needed this one. I feel like we’re starting to gel a little bit more each and every game, and we couldn’t take our foot off the break for this game at all.”

The Herd shot 58% (39-67) in field goals while the Bison shot 33% (18-55). Marshall had more rebounds than Howard, 45-31, dished out 29 assists and collected more blocks, winning the margin 9-1.

“We knew what we had to do,” Williams said. “Anytime I score early, I feel like I’m in a better flow with the game. Once we get hype early, nobody’s going to stop us.”

For Howard, Kyle Foster led with 14 points. Zion Cousin led the team in rebounds with seven and Ian Lee totaled three assists.

“It was fun out there tonight,” Bennett said. “We had fun and played really hard.”

Up next, the Herd will travel to Gainesville, Florida to take on the University of Florida on Friday, Nov. 29. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

Taylor Huddleston can be contacted at [email protected].