The Marshall men’s basketball team won opening night against the Wright State Raiders 96-88 on Friday, overcoming an eight-point deficit midway through the second half.Head coach Dan D’Antoni praised the opponent, saying the team played well in the latter stages of the game.

“You know whoever scheduled this game first is nuts. That’s a tough season opener,” D’Antoni said. “They have a very good team, I thought we fought hard. We really upped the defense at the end.”

Marshall trailed 69-61 at the 11:17 mark of the second half but managed to go on an 11-3 run to tie the game at the 7:46 mark.

The game went back and forth from there until Marshall went on a 22-11 run in the final five minutes of the game.

The Herd trailed 77-76 with less than five minutes remaining and won the game, making this the first time in the last two seasons that the Herd came back when trailing with less than five minutes left in the game.

It also marks the third time in the D’Antoni era in which six student athletes scored 10 or more points: senior guard Taevion Kinsey (22), redshirt junior guard Andrew Taylor (15), freshman forward Aymeric Toussaint(13), senior forward Darius George (11), sophomore forward Obinna Anochili-Killen(11) and junior center Goran Miladinovic (10) were the ones who did just that, respectively.

The ball being spread around was needed as there were two Raiders who dominated on Friday night.

Raiders redshirt junior forward Grant Basile led all scorers with 37 points shooting 12-21 from the floor and 12-14 from the free throw line.

Taylor Holden was the second leading scorer as he put up 25 points while shooting 8-18 from the floor and 8-11 from the line.