The Marshall University Men’s Basketball Team’s untarnished conference record was smudged on Saturday, Jan. 13, losing to the South Alabama Jaguars 91-85 at the Cam Henderson Center.

“We had a lot of turnovers, and, defensively, we weren’t playing good, and you know they were making shots,” senior forward Obinna Anochili-Killen said in the team’s post-game press conference.

The Herd trailed the Jaguars by eight points going into halftime. Both teams connected on eight shots from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes of the contest.

The first six minutes of the second half put the Herd behind the eight ball for the remainder of the game trailing by as much as 21 points at the 12-minute mark.

However, a 49-point combined scoring effort throughout the game from Anochili-Killen and Cameron Crawford kept the Herd on the cusp of a comeback.

Anochili-Killen recorded his career-high 26 points with Crawford providing a career-best 23 points off the bench. Crawford received 27 minutes of playtime after not being in the rotation for several games at the discretion of head coach Dan D’Antoni.

“I just had a hunch that he was ready; I listened to him,” D’Antoni said regarding Crawford’s return to the hardwood. “Sometimes, you have to sit there and look and realize what you’re going to lose if you don’t want to do it a certain way; he came back in and gave us a great effort.”

Marshall pulled the game within six points after a 15-0 scoring run in the later stages of the game but failed to complete the comeback and suffered its first Sun Belt Conference loss of the season.

The Herd will take to the road for its next two contests against the Old Dominion Monarchs on Jan. 18, followed by the James Madison Dukes on Jan. 20.

“We go on the road down to Old Dominion and then back to James Madison,” D’Antoni said. “Tough road trip: that’s a rival, going into the team that was picked to win it, so we got our work cut out for us.”