November 6, 2018,  Basketball  No comments

Marshall Defeats West Virginia Wesleyan

By Michael Morgan

Marshall on Thursday defeated West Virginia Wesleyan College 83-65, due to proficient inside scoring.

The Herd scored 56 of their 83 points (67 percent) from inside the paint.

The Thundering Herd’s leading scorers were senior C.J. Burks and freshman Taevion Kinsey, scoring 10 points in the win in front of 5,721 spectators.

Senior Fred Bronsted led Wesleyan in scoring with 24 points, 21 coming from shooting 7-for-14 from three.

Defense was the focus of the week in preparation for the game against Wesleyan, likely due to the fact that Marshall gave up 108 points in their previous game against Glenville State on Sunday, also in the Cam Henderson Center.

“That was our first look at a zone (defense), so that helped us out,” Marshall head coach Dan D’Antoni said. “We’ll have good tape to show our kids where to go.”

“We gave up about one half the points from the first game,” said senior Marshall point guard Jon Elmore.

Marshall scored 23 points off of the 24 turnovers committed by Wesleyan. Elmore said that Herd assistant coach Scott Rigot emphasized defense in practice before the game and, “yelled from the beginning of practice to the end.”

The herd began the game down 3-0 before going on a 12-0 run, with each of the six baskets scored by a different player. Wesleyan cut the deficit down to just one point with 8:20 left in the first half before Marshall went on a 10-0 run and ending the half leading 39-26.

Marshall missed their first nine three-pointers in the first half before the first make by Burks with 10:53 remaining. The Herd finished the first half just 1-for-19 from beyond the arc, and 5-for-33 overall in the game. “The way we play, that’s not normally what we do,” Elmore said.

“That’s the least of my worries,” D’Antoni said. “We’ll shoot the basketball.”

The Herd was just 3-for-30 from three before freshman walk-on Luke Thomas from Proctorville, Ohio, made a pair of three point shots in just three minutes of playing time late in the second half.

“We got a chance to play everybody,” D’Antoni said. The Herd had 13 different scorers, and played all 15 players that dressed for the game. Sophomore Mikel Beyers, senior Rondale Watson, and Elmore all scored 9 points each for the Herd.

Marshall was notably predicted to return to the NCAA tournament as a 12 seed in a preseason bracket prediction done by Big Ten Network contributor Andy Katz. This was mentioned after the Herd’s defeat of Wesleyan and D’Antoni wanted to focus on the upcoming season opener instead.

“Now it’s time for the real stuff,” D’Antoni said. “We’re going on the road to Eastern Kentucky and that wasn’t too good two years ago… we’ll have to be prepared. The first games are always hard.”

Marshall travels to Eastern Kentucky University on Wednesday to open up their season before returning home on Sunday to play Hofstra.