Marshall wins going away at Miami Ohio as Kinsey reaches 2,000 career points
— By David Walsh
When a team defeats its opponent by nearly 30 points, one can expect a few players on the winning side to have career nights or better.
Marshall enjoyed such an experience Thursday night when it led wire-to-wire and raced past Miami Ohio, 95-69, at Millett Hall in Oxford, Ohio.
Senior Taevion Kinsey became just the fourth player in school history to reach 2,000 points when he made 1-of-2 free throws with 4:16 left. He finished with 14 points and joins Jon Elmore, Skip Henderson and John Taft in the 2,000-point club.
“Wow. That’s crazy,” Kinsey said when he learned he reached 2,000 points. “Didn’t know that at hall. Definitely a milestone for my career. See how many points I keep going with.”
Wyatt Fricks, a 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman, hit for a career-high 19 points on his 20th birthday after going 7 of 11 from the field and 5 of 7 on triples.
Kinsey saluted the effort by Fricks.
“He can shoot the ball,” Kinsey said. “He proved that tonight.”
Guard Andy Taylor led all scorers with 26 points and grabbed six rebounds to go with five assists.
Kamdyn Curfman, the transfer from VMI, pumped in 16 points thanks to five 3s.
Freshmen Jacob Conner had 10 points and Micah Handlogten, who stands 7-foot-1, led in rebounds with 12. As a team, the Herd made 37-of-66 shots (56.1 percent) and 13 of 26 from long range.
Herd coach Dan D’Antoni reeled off some superlatives for the job turned in by his freshmen.
“Wyatt finally shot like we see him in practice,” D’Antoni said. “Handllogten did OK on their big guy. Jacob’s a special player. I’m going to run out of words talking about them all the time.”
Then he came to Taylor and Kinsey, the two workhorses.
“Andy’s a special player, too,” D’Antoni said. “He loves basketball. He wants to get better all the time. He started really slow last season. He wasn’t Andy, we weren’t Marshall. Taevion came back determined to change things for Marshall. The coaching staff got guys who fit like I like to coach.
“It’s a maker’s game now. Whoever makes the shots is going to win.”
On defense, the Herd limited the RedHawks to 20-of-65 overall shooting and a dismal 6 of 32 from behind the arc. Marshall led in bench points, 36-12; blocks, 7-2; fastbreak points, 21-5; points off turnovers, 27-11; and points in the paint, 44-20.
Anderson Mirambeaux led Miami (1-3) with 19 points and Julian Lewis added 15. The RedHawks, a former rival with the Herd when the two were in the Mid-American Conference, now lead the all-time series 47-29. They did convert 23-of-28 free throws to just 8-of-17 for the visitors.
The Herd is in a busy stretch with three games in five days. Coppin State visits Henderson Center on Saturday and Chicago State comes in Monday. Start time for both is 7 p.m.
