Marshall University men’s basketball came back to defeat the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs 83-79 in overtime Saturday night in the Cam Henderson Center.

The Thundering Herd improved to 12-13 overall (6-6 Conference USA), while LA Tech fell to 17-7 overall (8-4 C-USA).

“That was a rollercoaster,” Marshall Head Coach Dan D’Antoni said. “You got to appreciate how hard they (Marshall) play and how much they care. They’re going to give me everything they got. Whenever you do that, it works out. You beat that ball club, we beat them. That puts us up in the standings a little bit. We just got to keep winning.”

LA Tech took a 31-27 lead into halftime and then the Herd took over in the second half as Mikel Beyers and Jarrod West scored career highs tonight, 24 and 25 respectively.

“It’s a huge confident booster and a great game for Mikel,” West said. “He came in and made the right decision. Coach Dan hasn’t given up on him. Today, that was huge. I hope it’s the time. We needed it a lot.”

It was a back and forth game in the last few minutes and Beyers nailed a put back jumper with five seconds to tie the game at 68 and send the game to overtime.

“Coach Dan has said over the past couple weeks that to just wait, that my time has been coming,” Beyers said.

The Herd had three players in double figures. West lead the way with 25 points (9-for-15), seven assists, three steals and one block. Beyers followed with 24 points (8-for-11), six rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal. Taevion Kinsey rounded out the double-figures scorers with 19 points (9-for-13), eight rebounds, two assists and one block.

The Herd accumulated 32 points in the paint, 24 points off the bench, 20 off turnovers, eight second chance and two from the fast break.

Six Bulldogs reached double digits in scoring, led by Kalob Ledoux with 15 points (5-for-11), four rebounds, two assists and two steals. JaColby Pemberton, Mubarak Muhammad, Andrew Gordon all had 12 points each. Amorie Archibald had 11 points (3-for-11), two assists and one steal. DaQuan Bracey rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points (3-for-12), three rebounds, two assists and two steals.

The Bulldogs added 40 points in the paint, 32 from the bench, 15 off turnovers, 11 second chance and eight fast breaks.

Up next for the Herd, the team travels to San Antonio, Texas to take on the UTSA Roadrunners Thursday with tipoff set for 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST.

Spencer DuPuis can be contacted at [email protected].