FEDORA

[PointGuard]

Jan. 26, 2022: William & Mary Tribe (9-9, 6-1) @ Towson Tigers (12-6, 5-2)

Dominick Collins, SG who is ineligible this season due to transferring from USC:

After winning their first game this season, the Tribe lost 6 straight pre-conference games. In conference play they’ve done just the opposite, losing their league opener and now on a 6-game win streak and riding along in a tie with Charleston for 1st place in the conference. We have a 5-game win streak on the line and want to keep that going so are intent on knocking off William & Mary. We need to step up our play at home to do that, though. Coach Fed says we need to build and maintain our momentum more at home so we keep our crowd cheering us on and making it difficult on our opponents.

SF Ross Davis will miss his 2nd straight game due to having the flu.

Coach Iacona’s scouting report says of the 3 players William & Mary has averaging in double figures, freshman SG Marino Barnes has been the hottest in his past 3 or 4 games from inside and outside the arc. But while senior SF Eddie Mosely is averaging just 8.4 ppg, he is a deadly jump shooter from inside the arc and has scored in double figures in the Tribes last 3 games. Since the coaches felt my game is similar to Eddie Mosely’s, they had me play as Mosely against our starters in practice. The Tribes’ normal starting PG Kueth Johnson, who is averaging 11.8 ppg, is nursing an injury and may not start or play much, but walkon PG Bryan Hawkins has been shooting exceptionally well from all over the court thus far this season. We’re going to try pressuring William & Mary defensively and playing more up-tempo offensively to throw them off-balance and wear them down.

1st half:

C Melvin Steele picks up 2 fouls in first 2 minutes.
Refs working us over…5 fouls in first 2-1/2 minutes.
Tribes’ SG Marino Barnes called for 2nd foul at 16:40 mark and C Matt Holt picks up 2nd foul at 15:46. Refs whistles are burning up.
12:58—2 fouls on PF Deon Penn.
C Jason Miner assessed 2nd foul. This sucks!
We’ve been ahead all night but lead 22-15 with 8 minutes left in the half.
PG Adrian Brown hits jumper to put us ahead by 10 at 31-21 with 4:30 to go.
Half ends with us on top 43-27. Adrian Brown scored 10 points. We outrebound the Tribe 21-13 and held a 7-4 turnover advantage.

2nd half:

16:04 Deon Penn fouled, makes one of two but leaves game due to injury.
12:51 Big run puts us ahead 30 at 62-32.
6:30 We’re killing them inside. Outscoring them in the paint and dominating the boards.

End of game: Towson-84, William & Mary-51. Wiped them out! We move into tie with William & Mary for 2nd place, one game behind Charleston.

We outshot the Tribe 54% to 35%. We held a 40-25 advantage on the boards. We achieved a 38-20 advantage on points in the paint and a 10-0 advantage on 2nd chance points. I got a pat on the back from Coach Fed since our guys were able to control the Tribe’s Eddie Mosely.

Top scorers: C Melvin Steele-17 (he also grabbed 12 rebounds), C Jason Miner-14 points (he pulled down 10 rebounds also), PG Adrian Brown-13 points.

Other CAA game: In a game between two teams with 0-7 CAA records, Delaware beat Elon to win their first game of the entire season.

[PointGuard]

Cryin’ the Blues

1st Asst (Recruiting) Coach Omar McDade

The SAT scores were announced. We’d been in extensive contact with 3 high school recruits who are ranked from #25 to #75 nationally. But we’d been worried about whether any of the 3 of these high-flying recruits would achieve qualifying scores since their GPA’s were low. We were right to worry. None of their SAT scores were high enough to qualify to attend Towson. So our hopes, improbable as they may have been, were dashed and we were left crying in our beer.

But we’ll go on with life and continue to pursue those on our list who have shown some level of interest and who do qualify academically. We’ve got scholarship offers pending to two recruits, a PF and a PG. Time for me to work harder on getting them to commit, but yet maintain enough of our recruiting budget to go after others if these guys don’t sign with us.

I sure hope we can increase our budget for next season. This is the second consecutive year we just don’t have enough money to recruit the way we want.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 30, 2022: Towson Tigers (13-6, 6-2) @ Charleston Cougars (13-6, 7-1)

Rob Masters, Graduate Assistant Coach

Back with you as I keep track of some things to pass along to Coach Aura after the game. Charleston obviously was underrated before season began since they were picked to finish 8th in the CAA. They’re running a fast-paced offense which has resulted in them being the top-scoring team in the conference thus far.

Offensive Strategy: The Cougars’ defense has given up a lot of points. But we haven’t played against a team this season that employs a 1-2-2 zone. We’re going to try to beat their zone by working the ball inside as much as possible. Hopefully Deon Penn and Melvin Steele don’t get into foul trouble so they can put a lot of points on the board for us. Coach Iacona feels we stronger at PF and PG than the Cougars, so we’ll try to exploit that advantage.

Defensive Strategy: If Charleston gets off to a good start, we’ll try slowing down the pace to try to frustrate them. They’re shooting pretty well from 3-point distance, so if they get hot out there, we’ll go strictly to m-2-m to try to close off that part of their game. SG Grant Hopkins and SF Russell Brown both are averaging over 11 ppg, but Hopkins has a higher shooting percentage, so we’ll focus on him initially and then shift if someone else gets hot.

1st Half:

Charleston’s first place standing has certainly brought out their fans. All 5100 seats at TD Arena appear to be filled and they got the place rocking before the game tipped off. Hope our guys don’t get intimidated.

After 5 minutes we’re ahead 9-7. We’re not shooting all that well, but PF Deon Penn dominating the boards inside. Our defense has forced the Cougars to make several turnovers.

10 minutes into the half: Charleston on top 20-18. The lead has been shifting back and forth. We lofting up a lot of 3 attempts, but not hitting enough of them.

5 minutes to go in the half: We lead 26-23. Our defense and rebounding just not giving Charleston all that many shots. PG Adrian Brown hit a couple 3’s in the last few minutes to put us ahead. Coach Aura seems to be playing a much shorter bench than usual.

End of half: We pulled ahead 40-31. Brown playing great…has 13 points and 4 assists. Penn already has 10 rebounds. Charleston players looked to be frustrated by our ball control and defense which limited their shots. 11 turnovers by the Cougars. C Melvin Steele has 3 fouls and Penn has 2.

2nd Half:

5 minutes into the half: Great start. We’re up 54-38. Brown continues to fire away from outside and SF Wayne Burrough hitting from inside out and outside.

Midway thru half: Our lead has increased to 66-45. SG Billy Thomas, Burrough, and Brown came up with some big steals. Coach Aura leaning much more heavily than usual on the starting 5 plus C Jason Miner since Steele how has 4 fouls.

5 minutes left in the game: Our shooting cooled off and Charleston made a big run to cut their deficit to 72-59. We gave the Cougars some clear shots and they began hitting. Steele fouled out. 4 fouls on Penn. Brown now has 20 points.

End of Game: We coasted through the final 10 minutes of the game which shaved our lead but we still won 83-73. Defense was porous allowing too many easy buckets for Charleston. They improved their shooting to 52% compared to our 42%. But we controlled the boards 44-32 and had a 19-14 turnover advantage. We put up 40 3PA’s (very usual)…but only hit on 12 of them (not good). The win puts us into a tie for first place with Charleston and William & Mary. The team is really psyched up after winning their 7th straight game but even more so for 3 of their last 4 wins being against teams that came into the game against the Tigers with just one loss apiece…two 10 point wins on the road against Northeastern and Charleston and a 33 point blowout at home over William & Mary.

Top Players:

PG Adrian Brown-24 points, 9 assists; SF Wayne Burrough-15 points; SG Billy Thomas-13 points, 4 assists, 3 steals; PF Deon Penn-8 points, 16 rebounds (including 10 offensive rebounds), 2 blocks; C Melvin Steele-8 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 2, 2022: Towson Tigers (14-6, 7-2) @ Drexel Dragons (9-11, 5-4)

SF Wayne Burrough

Five reasons we really want to win this game: (1) Stay in 1st place; (2) Extend win streak; (3) Get revenge for 72-65 loss to Drexel earlier this season; (4) It’s Coach Aura’s birthday; and (5) We always want to win.

Refs called 2 fouls on me in first 5 minutes after we fell behind 10-5. But we scored the next 7 points to go ahead. Lead changed between teams then for several minutes. But led by the scoring of PF Deon Penn, we took control in last 8 minutes of the half. At the break we led 33-26. Deon had 14 points and 5 rebounds. Coach Aura had us switch to a fast-paced offense for the 2nd half to throw off the slow-pace Dragons.

In the second half, we came out with fire in our eyes. Our quick pace took Drexel by surprise and we opened an 18 point lead. The Dragons were unable to handle Deon Penn. We finished with an 80-67 easy win.

PF Deon Penn scored 30 points (knocking down 11 of 13 FGA’s and 3 of 3 from beyond the arc) and had 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. PG Adrian Brown scored 12 while dishing out 5 assists. C Melvin Steele had 8 points and 11 rebounds. C Jason Miner hit for 9 points while grabbing 5 boards. I finished with 8 points and 6 rebounds.

Charleston beat William & Mary to stay tied with us for 1st place and knock the Tribe into 3rd place.

[PointGuard]

Good News!

Coach Frederick Aura

Good news on two fronts!

First, PF Deon Penn was named the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week. Deon had two great games, scoring 38 points, hauling down 24 rebounds, and gettig 3 assists, 3 steals, and 4 blocks. Deon has played well all season and is now averaging 14.6 ppg and 7.3 rpg.

Second, PG Shaun White, JC player from Clinton, Massachusetts accepted our scholarship offer. Shaun is a very good scorer with a sweet outside shot, is a very good free throw shooter, a real ball hawk, an excellent passer, and an adroit ball handler. He’s very athletic and a hard worker who is the 133rd highest ranked recruit in the nation. Shaun and Matt Faust, who we signed earlier, will resolve our PG needs for the coming couple seasons.

We are still awaiting word from the final recruit to whom we’ve offered a scholarship.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 6, 2022: Hofstra Pride (7-14, 3-7) @ Towson Tigers (15-6, 8-2)

Rob Stevenson, team athletic trainer

The team goes into this game at full strength with no injuries.

We jumped out to a 7-0 lead. A rock-solid defense made it possible for us to hold a 17-6 lead with 10 minutes left in the half. We kept the pressure on and Hofstra only hit 28% of their first half shots. We also held a 23-15 rebounding advantage. The result was a halftime lead of 37-22. SF Wayne Burrough scored 12 points while PF Deon Penn had 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Our lead ballooned to 20 points after 4 minutes of play in the 2nd half. Our defense continued to hold Hofstra at bay. We led by as much as 26 points before settling for a 67-49 stomping of the Pride. We dominated the boards 42-30. The team remains tied with Charleston for the conference lead.

Leading our scoring was SF Wayne Burrough with 21 points. PF Deon Penn had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Good news: No injuries during the game other than a contusion on Billy Thomas' thigh. But while there may be a little soreness, the bruised area will heal quickly. With a relatively easy win there normally is less pain, strain and lame.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 9, 2022: Towson Tigers (16-6, 9-2) @ Delaware FIghtin’ Blue Hens (2-20, 2-9)

Baltimore Sun

Towson’s Win Streak Broken

Towson’s basketball team travelled to take on the lowly Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens last night. The Tigers defense failed to stop Delaware in the first half. The Fightin’ Blue Hens hit 55% of their shots and held a small lead throughout most of the half. Ten turnovers by Towson set the table for Delaware as they converted five of those into driving full court layups. Fortunately PG Mateen Carroll came in off the bench to pour in 12 points for the Tigers to keep the score close. The half ended with Towson trailing 42-40.

The second half was like a replay of the first half. Delaware again maintained a small lead most of the half. Towson’s edged ahead occasionally only to lose the lead quickly. Late in the second half Delaware took a nine point lead, but Towson fought back. With 12 seconds remaining Adrian Brown knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 74-73. Towson immediately fouled so they could get the ball back. Delaware sunk both free throws. The Tigers Mateen Carroll had an uncontested 3 point shot but it went off the rim and Towson went down to defeat 76-73.

Towson held a 34-31 rebounding advantage and had 3 less turnovers than Delaware, but the Tigers were outshot 51% to 41% and got to the free throw line 14 fewer times where they made 8 fewer points. All five starters for the Fightin’ Blue Hens scored in double figures, led by PF Darnell Bryson’s 19 points. For Towson, PG Mateen Carroll and SG Billy Thomas both scored 18 points with PF Deon Penn adding 12 points and SF Wayne Burrough hitting for 10 points.

The loss broke Towson’s 9 game win streak and dropped the Tigers into 2nd place in the Colonial Athletic Association, a game behind Charleston. “We had our chances in this game, but just weren’t able to take control. We just didn’t get it done defensively, tonight,” said Coach Frederick Aura. “It’s a game we should have won, but Delaware played well and gamely held us off each time we tried to gain an advantage.”

Two players sustained injuries in the game. PF Jason Vickers suffered a contusion to his knee and SG Ryan Taylor injured his wrist. Aura said he doesn’t expect either player to miss the Tigers next game against Elon but that it’s likely it will take about a week for either player to be at full strength.

[PointGuard]

PG Adrian Brown

The 3 losses we’ve had in conference play have come at the hands of the teams in 7th, 8th, and 9th place. That’s disgracing. I’m pretty sure Coach Fed feels that way also. He worked our asses off in practice. So even though he hasn’t said anything about those 3 losses, it’s pretty darned obvious he’s pissed at us for letting down when we are playing less talented teams.

I checked my stats and found to my dismay that I only scored a TOTAL of 9 points (and had just 2 steals and no blocks) in those 3 games! When I think back on it, it doesn’t seem like I didn’t get up for those games, but maybe I didn’t. Lesson learned!

[PointGuard]

Feb. 13, 2022: Elon Phoenix (4-19, 1-11) @ Towson Tigers (16-7, 9-3)

SG Ryan Taylor

It took us 11-1/2 minutes before we finally got a lead in this game. Then in the final 6 minutes of the first half, we dominated the Phoenix and scored 24 of the final 27 points in the half. That gave us a commanding 45-24 halftime advantage. Our defense forced Elon to make 14 turnovers. SF Wayne Burrough poured in 13 points to lead us offensively.

We coasted through the entire 2nd half and even though our offense died, we won convincingly 72-55.

SF Wayne Burrough put in 19 points and PG Adrian Brown added 13 points. C Melvin Steele nearly had a double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds. I played OK, scoring 8 points.

Charleston won so we’re still alone in 2nd place, one game behind the Cougars.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 16, 2022: Towson Tigers (17-7, 10-3) @ James Madison Dukes (11-13, 8-5)

2nd Assistant Coach Michael Snoddy

The Dukes are 9-0 at home. We barely beat them on our own court, but only by a score of 82-78. They’ve won 5 of their last 6 games. So beating them tonight on their home court is a tall order, even though I believe overall we’re the better team. We need to try to control both SF Chris Archey (14.2 ppg) and C Felipe McMillian (11.6 ppg). If one of them has a substandard game, the other seems to pick up the slack. It’s important that Deon Penn and Melvin Steele don’t get into early foul trouble as both have in a number of our games thus far.

We missed our first 7 FG’s and fell behind 10-2 after 4 minutes of play. We trailed by double figures through most of the half and by as much as 16 points. But in the final 8 minutes of the half we began eating into lead and got within 6 points. But we then gave it all back in the final couple minutes to trail 46-31 at the break. James Madison outshot us 49% to 35% and the Dukes hit 8 of 13 three’s. PF Rowan Besecker and SF Chris Archey scored 13 and 11 points respectively for James Madison. We didn’t have anyone who scored ore than 6 points.

We dropped behind by 17 points 2 minutes into the 2nd half. We then went on a 9-0 run. A few minutes later we got with 5 points only to see the Dukes quickly pull back ahead 68-52 with 10 minutes left in the game. Coach Fed chewed the guys out during a TO. We made a couple mini runs from there on but never seriously contended and ended up losing 92-80.

We let the Dukes hit 51% of the FG’s and 55% of their 3’s. PF Rowan Besecker scorched the nets for 24 points for James Madison. For us, PF Deon Penn had 14 points, SF Ross Davis hit for 13, and SG Billy Thomas added 12.

Now We're 2 games behind league-leading Charleston and a game in front of James Madison and Northeastern that are tied for 3rd place.