FRISCO, Texas – The Marshall University men’s basketball team (12-21, 4-14 C-USA) fell to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (22-9, 12-6 C-USA), 77-67, in the second round of the 2022 Conference USA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Wednesday night.

“In about three minutes, it went from 44-43 to 55-43. Bad shot, bad turnover and then Lofton got in there with two layups,” Herd men’s basketball head coach Dan D’Antoni said after the loss.

“We a had a couple good looks to end the run, but they didn’t go down. That’s the nature of basketball. Especially when two teams are close in play.”

Junior Taevion Kinsey tallied 24 points and grabbed five rebounds. The guard made three of his five attempts from three-point range.

Senior Mikel Beyers recorded his first double-double of the season with a season-best 21 points and a career-high 12 boards.

Redshirt sophomore Andrew Taylor dished out a team-high four assists as freshman Obinna Anochili-Killen rejected three shots.

Louisiana Tech forward Kenneth Lofton, Jr., led his side with 21 points and nine rebounds.

After Lofton opened the game with a pair of layups, Kinsey drained back-to-back three-pointers to put Marshall on top, 6-4, at the 18:20 mark.

The Bulldogs hit a pair of buckets, but Beyers and sophomore Goran Miladinovic each nailed a three to go with a jumper by Anochili-Killen for an 8-0 Herd run. It led 14-9 about five minutes into the first half.

Marshall led for the next seven minutes before LA Tech went on a 13-3 advantage to put the Green and White at a 26-22 deficit with 7:17 left in the opening stanza.

The two sides traded baskets the rest of the way as the Bulldogs held a 37-32 lead at halftime.

Beyers opened the second half with a pair of free throws and a jumper as Bulldogs squeezed five points in between Beyers’ efforts.   

Then Kinsey hit a jumper, Taylor drained a three and Beyers threw down a dunk for a 7-0 Herd run. The streak cut the deficit to one point, 44-43 with just over 14 minutes remaining in the contest.

However, LA Tech regained a stranglehold on the ballgame with an 11-0 advantage four minutes later to gain a 12-point lead, 55-43.   

The Bulldogs lead dipped below 10 points for only 14 seconds in the final 10 minutes of the contest as Marshall’s season came to a close.

NOTES              

Beyers’ double-double was the second of his career.

The Herd made a three in its 1,003rd consecutive game, with the last contest without a triple occurring on Feb. 27, 1989, in a win over App State.           

Kinsey has scored 10 or more points in 64 of his last 65 games. The Columbus, Ohio, native has had 17 games of 20 or more points this season.   

Taylor had tallied at least 10 points in his last 13 games before recording eight points in the loss.    

The Bulldogs made 50.9 percent of their shots (28 of 55) from the field after averaging 46 percent during the regular season.