HUNTINGTON, W. Va.- Old Dominion men’s basketball dropped its sixth straight contest, falling 83-66 to the Thundering Herd on Tuesday night in West Virginia.
The loss brings ODU’s overall record to 11-19 and 7-10 in the Sun Belt. The win improves Marshall’s record to 18-12 and 11-6 in the Sun Belt.
“We missed a couple opportunities. We got them into the bonus pretty early in the second half and we could have got to the free throw line. We should have kept attacking the rim, putting pressure on them to either let us score at the rim or to foul us, so we missed some opportunities there,” said ODU Head Coach Mike Jones.
The score was 47-46 in favor of the home team with 13:03 left in the second half. Marshall went on a 12-0 run in the next six minutes thanks to a three by Wyatt Fricks, a jumper by Dezayne Mingo, a pair of layups by Nate Martin and Kai Spears, and a putback layup by Obinna Anochili-Killen to make the score 59-46 at the third media timeout. After the timeout Marshall’s Mingo would make a jumper to extend the Monarch deficit to 15 points.
The best ODU would do would be to claw it back to a 12-point deficit thanks to a corner three by Scottie Hubbard and a pair of free throws by Caden Diggs that brought the score to 71-59 with 3:53 remaining in the game. The Thundering Herd scored 12 points the rest of the way to the Monarchs seven as it finished 83-66.
In the first half neither team could expand its lead beyond five points. Robert Davis Jr. finished the half with a team high 14 points and four made threes. Sean Durugordon finished the half with 11 points and Caelum Swanton-Rodger collected five assists in the first half, a career high for the transfer from Maryland. The Monarchs were down 39-35 with 48 seconds remaining in the half but a pair of free throws and a layup both by Durugordon trimmed the deficit. ODU went into halftime down by one point, 39-38.
“We got outrebounded by 10, when does that happen? Ten turnovers in the second half, we had that stretch there where we were going nip and tuck and nip and tuck. We were up one and then had four straight possessions with either a missed shot at the rim or a turnover and then we were down nine,” added Jones.
Davis Jr. finished with 23 points on 6-for-15 shooting and went a perfect 7-7 from the charity stripe. Jaden Johnson chipped in 14 points and Durugordon added 11 points. The Monarchs shot 40% from the field, 30.4% from behind the arc, and 79.2% from the free throw line. ODU grabbed 24 rebounds, nine offensive and swiped nine steals. The Monarch bench scored seven points, the team scored 12 points in the paint, and eight off of turnovers.
Dezayne Mingo led the way for the Herd, scoring 22 points and dishing six assists. Anochili-Killen added 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting, grabbing a team high eight rebounds while swatting two shots and swiping three steals on the defensive end. Nate Martin and Mikal Dawson rounded out the Herd scorers with 12 and 11 respectively. Marshall shot 57.7% from the field, 61.5% from deep, and 65.2% from the charity stripe. The Herd scored 30 points in the paint, grabbed 34 rebounds, and the home team’s bench scored 15 points.
“I love our effort, for the most part. It's just you have to be able to execute better, we did not do that. We got to get better, and we have got to win on Friday.” said Jones.
ODU heads back on the road to Conway, South Carolina to take on the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina.