Although the Cam Henderson Center is enclosed, the scoring storm fostered by Marshall Men’s Basketball made it rain threes in a 91-76 triumph over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on Saturday, Feb. 3.
Meanwhile, the Chanticleers’ defense was without an umbrella, as the Herd’s 91 points in the contest was more than they had scored in any other Sun Belt Conference contest season.
“Basketball is a game of making shots,” head coach Dan D’Antoni said postgame. “We made shots. That’s what we look like when we make shots.”
Making shots versus attempting shots proved to be a difference for the Herd, fresh off of another stinging loss on Thursday against the Old Dominion Monarchs. As a team, Marshall shot 51% from the field on Saturday, completing 14 shots from outside the arc, an improvement from shooting just 42% from the field versus ODU and only completing 11 three-pointers in Thursday’s loss.
Entering Saturday’s contest, both the Herd and the Chanticleers had lost their most recent game. With both teams attempting to rebound, the Herd did just so by out-rebounding their opponent 40-35, alongside out-scoring the Chanticleers in both halves. Marshall had a sixteen-point lead at halftime, up 48-32. The second half was more competitive, but the Herd still outscored the Chanticleers 43-42 in the final 20 minutes of regulation to put together a final score of 91-76.
Leading the Herd’s stampede of scoring was senior forward Obinna Anochili-Killen, netting a career-high 30 points in the victory. Anochili-Killen completed 9 shots from the field, shooting a near-perfect 9-10 from the free-throw line and three successful shots outside the arc. It was Anochili-Killen’s eighth game with at least 20 points this season, alongside notching his second-consecutive double-double with ten rebounds.
Keeping with a trend of consecutives, Kevon Voyles showed out in the scoring department for a second straight contest, with Voyles yet again scoring a career-high at Marshall. Voyles’ 26 points might’ve been second-best to Anochili-Killen, but Voyles took command from outside the arc, splashing the net for a team-leading five successful three-point shots. Voyles accredited his recent successes postgame to the two-way street of trust between himself and his teammates.
“Trusting my team, trusting my teammates who trust in me making shots,” Voyles explained. “Not starting off missing shots, starting off solid so I can maintain that confidence throughout the game.”
Kamdyn Curfman, on the other hand, had a disappointing performance, completing zero shots on only four attempts from the field. The senior, who has started every contest this season, entered the contest leading not just the Herd but the entire conference in average minutes played per game with 34.4. His 17-game streak of double-digit scoring was snapped after being benched after only playing 19 minutes in the contest.
However, redshirt sophomore Creighton Thieneman stepped up, sinking his first career 3-point bucket in men’s college basketball.
The Chanticleers produced two 20-point scorers in the loss, with Jacob Meyer – leading Coastal Carolina with 13.5 points scored per game – notching a team-leading 22 points and teammate John Ojiako locking up another double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Ojiako is averaging a double-double this season, his average of 10.4 rebounds entering
Saturday’s contest making him the best player in the Sun Belt when it comes to rebounding the ball.
The loss drops Coastal Carolina to a 6-16 overall record, with a 3-8 record in Sun Belt Conference play and 1-7 record on the road this season. Marshall, with the victory, improved to a 12-12 overall record, the first time since Jan. 6 that the Herd has had a .500 record. In conference play, Marshall now sits solely in fourth place with a 7-4 record. The Herd is also now 8-5 at home this season, proving to be efficient in multiple facets in the win.
“They were efficient,” D’Antoni briefly stated postgame. “It’s all good.”
Following a four-game homestand, Marshall Men’s Basketball now begins a triple-stop road trip which will commence with a contest at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 7, in Troy, Alabama, to face the second-best-in-conference Troy Trojans.
