Photos by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Oliver Voigt (30) dunks on a Tri-City United defender during the second half of a Big South Conference boys basketball game on Friday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — A stretch of 25 unanswered points in the opening minutes of the first half gave the Marshall boys basketball team all the momentum it needed to pull out a win in its home opener against Tri-City United on Friday. The Tigers dominated the turnover battle from start to finish, forcing 25 turnovers while giving the ball away just five times, and ran away with a 90-37 Big South Conference win.

The Tigers had 15 different players score in the game, shooting 60% from the field despite 2 of 13 shooting from beyond the arc in the game. Marshall also shot 91% from the free-throw line, while TCU shot 48% from the field, 5 of 13 from deep and 44% from the charity stripe.

Marshall’s dominance in its home debut came from the effort and focus that the boys bring to practice each day, Marshall head coach Travis Carroll said, noting that the team’s work ethic has helped them overcome the loss of a large group of graduating seniors and an injury to 6-foot-8 forward Jayden Meister.

“They’ve worked together really well and worked through that adversity,” Carroll said. “A lot of kids who may not have had as many opportunities on last year’s team have come in and really stepped up this year … We’re going to have some challenging games in front of us. We’ve been off to a decent start, but we need to sustain it by coming into practice and working hard, and we need to do a much better job of communicating defensively and valuing the basketball.”

Oliver Voigt led the Tigers’ well-rounded scoring effort with 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting, including a thunderous dunk early in the second half. Patrick Morman and Davion Xayarath also scored 14 and 10 points, respectively, while four other Tigers scored 5 or more points.

Marshall led 4-2 after a pair of putback buckets from Noah Pieper and Levi Maeyaert when it slammed its foot on the gas. Andrew Lee kicked off the run with a reverse layup and Voigt kept it going by finishing off a feed from Maeyaert for an 8-2 lead, and another pair of buckets from Xayarath and Pieper brought the gap to double digits.

Voigt and Jaylyn Koster each knocked down a pair of free throws to keep the ball rolling for Marshall, and Koster came up with a steal to set up a Jack Bly transition layup right after.

Morman started to heat up when he knocked down four free throws and sliced through the paint for a layup. He set up the latter two of his free throws with a steal on the defensive end.

Bly poked a ball loose to Morman, and the defense turned into offense when Brody Riess drove to the hole and kicked it out to Bly on the perimeter for a 3. Carson Mensink then grabbed a defensive rebound and sent a full-court outlet pass to Riess for a layup, capping off the Marshall run with a 29-2 lead.

Lee led the Tigers’ turnover battle efforts with four steals while Koster and Morman snagged three each.

Adnan Hassan led Marshall’s rebounding efforts with four boards while Xayarath and Pieper each grabbed another three.

The Titans ended their seven-minute scoring drought from there, but never got back into the game. The Tigers’ lead quickly shot up to 30 points, then 40 for a 57-17 lead at the break despite Marshall working deep into its bench before the break. The trend continued in the second half as the starters came out after the first few minutes.

After leading by as many as 46 points, the Tigers were able to trigger a running clock for the final eight minutes of the game.

All-you-can-eat scoring buffet

Marshall got everyone involved on the offensive end of the court on Friday, including five players who didn’t score a point for the team last season and another handful who got only a select few opportunities for the varsity team. Still, with the loss of each of the top four leading scorers for the team from last year, some younger Tigers took advantage of the opportunity early.

“It’s great to have nights like tonight where we’re able to get everyone in the game and it was great to hear our guys have great energy at the end of the bench, and it’s important for our team chemistry,” Carroll said, adding that all of the players come into practice and put in the same amount of work each day. “When you start a new season, you have to rebuild the chemistry of your team, and that’s one of those things we’re really focused on … That comes from everyone on the team working together, and it was great to hear everyone supporting their teammates.”

Up next

Marshall improves to 4-0 on the season with the win. The Tigers next compete on Tuesday when they go on the road to take on Delano (1-3) at 7:30 p.m.