FEDORA

[PointGuard]

Coach Frederick Aura:

So far our starters have played pretty well, particularly PF Deon Penn (18.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg), SF Wayne Burrough (16.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg) and PG Shaun White (15.0 ppg, 5.5 apg). SG Dominick Collins (9.0 ppg) has shown some flashes of excellence, but has been inconsistent. C Donny Flint (8.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg) hasn’t shot well thus far but should pick up his game and be a mainstay for us.

The only sub to play well thus far has been PF Jason Vickers. PG Matt Faust, SG Ryan Taylor, SF Ross Davis, and C/PF Jason Miner have failed to do much of anything for us in their first two games and we need them to come off the bench and produce! Three of those four played well for us last season, so it’s hard to know why they all were so flat in our first two games.

I was disappointed with our loss to Montana State. We just let it get away from us late in the 2nd half. As a team we didn’t execute as well as I would like against Montana State’s 2-3 zone. We’ve been working on it in practice. We’ll get a second shot at that zone defense when we host Wake Forest later this week. Shaun White made no friends when he got on our reserves. He came to us with a reputation for being disruptive and I don’t want that to become a reality with us. I told him to focus on his own play and let me do the coaching and motivating.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 23, 2022: Boston College Eagles (1-1) @ Towson Tigers (1-1)

Wayne Burrough, SF

BC is 1-1 at home this season. I’ll be guarding their top scorer, freshman Jason Adams who scored 23 points in their last game and is averaging 17.0 ppg. When we’re in m-2-m defense, we’ll double team him to see if we can keep him from breaking out.

BC was hot at the beginning and we fell behind 10-2. From thereon neither team played well offensively as the defenses for both teams predominated the remainder of the half. We could only hit 25% of our shots and the Eagles were just a little better in the half. I held Adams to just 2 points. C Donny Flint was our key offensive weapon and he scored 9 points, most of those on free throws. We trailed 33-24 at the break, though. In the locker room Coach Fed gave us a tongue lashing for playing so timidly. He then laid out a battle plan for the 2nd half that focused on a lock-down defense and making baskets off BC mistakes.

We responded by clamping down defensively in the 2nd half and gradually opened a lead. With 12-1/2 minutes remaining we were ahead 43-36 but PF Deon Penn was charged with his 4th foul so sat out most of the rest of the game on the bench. We got sloppy and BC scored 16 straight points to sprint past us at 52-43. We regained control defensively and forced the Eagles into repeated turnovers. With 2 minutes left we led 62-60. We stole the ball again and sat on the clock, scoring just as the shot clock expired to go ahead by 4. In the remaining time BC was forced to foul. We paraded to the foul line, but only made 3 shots there. But that was enough as our defense held the Eagles to just one more basket and we came away with a hard-fought 67-62 victory. We were outshot 38% to 35% but won because we held a 22-12 turnover advantage.

Our leading scorer was C Donny Flint with 18 points and 11 rebounds. SG Dominick Collins scored 10 points for us. I had 14 points and 6 boards. With the exception of BC’s run in the 2nd half during which Adams scored 7 points, I kept him under control and he finished with just 11 points on 4 of 13 shooting.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 26, 2022: Wake Forest Demon Deacons (0-2) @ Towson Tigers (2-1)

Adrian Brown, graduate assistant coach

Coach Fed reminded the team before the game that we don’t have many home games during pre-conference play. So we need to make the most of the ones we do have by coming out strong each and every time. I’ve been working closely with the guards so hope they put it to Wake Forest tonight. Wake Forest’s guards haven’t been productive thus far this season, so we need to keep them that way. Shaun White and Matt Faust, our two PG’s are tough to get to know. They’re both stand-offish. Knowing I just finished my two years with the Tigers, they haven’t really accepted me as a coach and don’t always take kindly to my suggestions. On the other hand, there are times when I wish I could come off the bench, go into the bench, and take over for one of them at PG.

It took us a while to get cooking, but we went on a 16-0 run to open a 23-7 lead. 12 of those points had come from our SG’s Dominick Collins and Ryan Taylor, so I was happy about that. With 7:45 to go in the half we had a 20 point lead at 29-9. We were ahead 34-15 at the break. We held Wake Forest’s shooting to just 25%, outrebounded them 21-16, and held a 15-7 turnover advantage. Our scoring was well-spread between all 5 starters and 3 subs. We had held the Demon Deacons’ two primary scorers to just a combined 2 points.

We kept applying defensive pressure so even though we didn’t shoot all that well in the 2nd half we were able to maintain a large lead. With 3 minutes left, we were on top 63-44 and Coach Fed emptied the bench including our 3 walk-ons. Wake Forest did the same and we came away with a 73-50 whipping of the Demon Deacons. We held Wake Forest’s shooting to 35%. We hit 45% of ours (including 44% on our 3P attempts), held a 36-30 rebounding advantage and a 25-14 turnover advantage. Our reserve players scored 35 points which was a relief for all of us after their not doing much in our previous 3 games.

SG Dominick Collins had his best game for us scoring 17. C Donny Flint had his second straight double-double scoring 10 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Reserve PG Ryan Taylor had 10 points and 4 assists. PG Shaun White had 9 assists.

Other CAA action: In the Cancun Challenge Tournament, Charleston beat Indiana and Pittsburgh before losing in the championship game to Wichita. Charleston is now ranked #24 in the polls. The Cougars are 5-1. Elon and James Madison both have 4-0 records.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 30, 2022: Towson Tigers (3-1) @ North Carolina State Wolfpack (2-2)

Barry Jorgenson, host of WBMD’s Sports Talk Radio:

Towson’s basketball team played a road game earlier tonight against the ACC’s North Carolina State Wolfpack. Taking on an ACC team was a big step up for the Tigers that speaks to Coach Frederick Aura’s growth and success of the Towson basketball program.

The Wolfpack came into the game with 4 starters averaging in double figures and their other starter averaging 10.8 rpg.
As much as I had hoped Towson could prevail, I have to admit my opinion was that they were in way over their heads.

The two teams were evenly matched throughout the first 10 minutes of the game. Then Towson took advantage of good shooting as well as a slew of Wolpack turnovers to put together a 13-0 run that allowed the Tigers to pull ahead 34-19 with 4 minutes remaining in the half. The Tigers held their lead and walked off the court at the break leading 44-29. This was primarily due to Towson outshooting NC State 56% to 39% and forging an 11-5 turnover advantage. C Donny Flint lead the Tigers’ scoring with 10 points in the first half.

The Tigers scored the first 6 points of the 2nd half to go up by 21 points. With the Tigers shooting even better than in the first half, Towson’s lead grew to as much as 29. With Coach Aura subbing freely Towson’s lead narrowed a bit but the Tigers pulled off an 80-63 drubbing on the road of North Carolina State.

C Donny Flint put together another very strong game (his 3rd straight), scoring 26 points and pulling down 9 boards. Reserve SG Ryan Taylor hit 7 of 8 FG’s and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc to finish with his best offensive game as a Tiger, scoring 17 points. PF Deon Penn scored 13 points. Defensively, the Tigers held 3 of the Wolfpack’s best scorers to under 10 points each.

So obviously I was wrong. Towson achieved a powerful win over a good opponent. The Tigers may be for real this season.

In a quick phone conversation with Coach Frederick Aura after the game, he expressed pleasure that the his team was able to put together a really strong game on both ends of the floor. He also said that they now are focused on their upcoming game against Seton Hall, although he’s worried about getting to South Orange, New Jersey because of a predicted snow storm in that area.

After taking on Seton Hall, Towson will have 5 games remaining before Colonial Athletic Association games begin. Four of those 5 games will be on the road. The lone home game will be against Washington State this coming Wednesday night, so come out and root on the Tigers.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 3, 2022: Towson Tigers (4-1) @ Seton Hall Pirates (4-2)

Jonathan Jackson, walk-on C:

We arrived in New Jersey in the midst of an early winter snow storm. Although our route from the airport had been cleared by snow plows, snow was deep on the ground otherwise and was continuing to fall. A stout north wind made being outside seem extremely raw.

The weather kept the crowd at the game to a minimum.

1st Half comments:

The Hall hit their first 3 shots (all by SF Morris Phillips) to take a 7-2 lead, but we came back to get on top 9-7 after 3 minutes of play.
Refs tagging us with too many fouls. The Pirates in the bonus midway through the half.
We’re up 23-14 with 8 minutes left in half. Our defense is making things difficult for Seton Hall so they’re not hitting their shots.
Pirates roar back to take a 37-35 lead with 2 minutes to go.
We come away with 41-39 lead at the half. Would be bigger if they’d not been able to score 7 more points at the line than us. SG Dominick Collins poured in 15 points for us. SF Morris Phillips had 14 points for Seton Hall.

2nd Half comments:

C Donny Flint called for 3rd foul with 18:42 to go and game tied at 43-43.
We drop behind by 6 points with 10 minutes to go.
SG Dominick Collins picks up 4th foul with 8 minutes left. Picky hand check foul that refs have let Seton Hall get away with all night. 6 fouls on us compared to just 2 against the Pirates in this half so far. Our entire bench erupts, but Coach Haynes tells us to cool it since we can’t afford to give them any points on technical fouls with us trailing 63-61.
Final media time out with 3:31 to go and us ahead 68-67.
SF Wayne Burrough buries back to back 3’s to put us up 74-70 with 2:25 left.
PG Shaun White fouled on missed shot with 49 seconds remaining. He knocked down both shots to put us back on top by 4.
Seton Hall missed a 3 and we brought the ball up. They had to foul, but it was just their 5th. Two more fouls took the clock down 18 seconds and put Dominick Collins on the line for a one-and-one. He missed the first and the Pirates rebounded and immediately called a time out. Our defense was impermeable and they could only get off a last-gasp 3 hoping it would go in and we’d foul on the shot, but it was off the mark and there was no foul.

We won 76-72. We held team stat advantages that were as slim as the final score. 43% to 41% FG shooting, 2 more rebounds, and 3 less turnovers. There were 21 lead changes and 9 ties in the game.

Leading individual stats for us: SF Wayne Burrough and SG Dominick Collins-17 points each; PG Shaun White-12 points, PF Deon Penn-10 points; C Donny Flint-11 rebounds.

After the game, Coach Aura was full of praise for the way we played tough throughout the game, didn’t get frustrated with the refs, never gave in, and took control at the end.

PF Jason Vickers sprained his finger. He’s not expected to miss a game, but his shooting may be affected in next week’s games.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 7, 2022: Washington State Cougars (4-2) @ Towson Tigers (5-1)

Coach Frederick Aura

The Cougars have played well in their last two games which both were on the road. They nearly nipped #7 Georgetown at the end of the game, losing by just 3 points and then scored 106 points to defeat New Mexico by 7 points. Whereas Washington State hadn’t shot that well in their earlier games, they hit 63% of their shots against the Lobos.

Both teams had slow starts during which they had a hard time getting the ball in the hoop. We held a small lead through much of the half, but the Cougars overtook us late and we had to come back to tie the game at 34-34 at the break. C Donny Flint hit for 9 points and grabbed 5 boards. But we only hit 35% of our shots.

My halftime motivation speech didn’t work. We missed our first 5 shots in the 2nd half and didn’t make a FG for the first 4-1/2 minutes of the half. We continued to struggle and fell behind by 5 points, but finally wrested the lead at 51-48 when SG Ryan Taylor sunk a 3 with 11 minutes to go. We finally opened a 9-point lead at 63-54 with 6:29 remaining, but we still weren’t shooting well. Washington State’s defense disintegrated at that point, and we sprinted at the end to an 81-66 victory. Even though we hit some late buckets, our shooting percentage had been so low that it only rose to 39%, while the Cougars hit 45% of their FG attempts. But we controlled the boards to the tune of 39-31 and made just 9 turnovers compared to Washington State’s 19.

Our entire starting 5 scored in double figures: 16 for PG Shaun White, 13 for SG Dominick Collins, 11 for PF Deon Penn, and 10 each for C Donny Flint and SF Wayne Burrough. Flint again had a double-double as he pulled down 10 rebounds. SG Ryan Taylor came off the bench to add 9 points.

A pretty ugly effort on our part, but a win is a win. Our front line in particular shot poorly so it was up to our guards to pull our bacon out of the fire. C/PF Jason Miner sustained a sprained finger but should be able to play in our next game.
For the season thus far, our starters are each averaging between 10.3 and 12.4 ppg.

[PointGuard]

Dec 10, 2022: Towson Tigers (6-1) @ East Carolina Pirates (6-1)

Max Scott, 1st Assistant (Scouting) Coach for Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens

Our first conference game will be against Towson in a few weeks. This is the first of four straight road games at the end of our pre-conference season for the Tigers and I won’t have a chance to get to any of the other three. So I’m scouting Towson against East Carolina tonight.

We play the Tigers twice each season so are pretty familiar with the sets Coach Aura runs. On offense they mostly go with a flex offense, but also throw in some high post and motion. Defensively they prefer running m-2-m but use the 2-3 zone. If like last season, they press frequently with a full-court m-2-m and rarely with a 1-2-1-1 press.

Towson has several new players this season so I need to check them out…in particular their starting guards, Shaun White and Dominick Collins, their starting center Donny Flint and reserve PG Matt Faust. After taking on Towson last season we know that their two other starters, SF Wayne Burrough and PF Deon Penn, are good solid players. Stopping the Tigers this season will be tough since all five starters are averaging in double figures. My job is to find Towson’s weaknesses that we can exploit.

First Half:

First media timeout: Towson ahead 8-6, playing good m-2-m, but having difficulty with 23zone.
Second media timeout: Towson ahead 15-14
Third media time out: Towson trails 19-17 (trouble scoring against 2-3 zone)
4th media time out: Towson trails 32-26 (m2m being beaten)
Halftime Score: East Carolina-34, Towson-30

Towson outshot 38% to 33%, Towson hit 4 of 15 from outside the arc, Towson never got to the free line whereas the Pirates hit 9 of 12 free throws. Towson -4 in rebounding and +2 for turnovers.

SF Wayne Burroughs 7 pts and 6 reb.
PF Deon Penn scored on 2 put-backs.
Donny Flint good at working ball inside to the hoop.

Towson’s Defense: East Carolina scored on 15 of 37 possessions against the Tigers’ M-2-M and 3 of 7 possessions when Tigers employed 2-3 zone.
Towson’s 2-3 zone offense: scored just 6 of 24 possessions.
Towson’s offense with no sets: scored 8 of 21 possessions.

Second Half:

1st media timeout: Towson down 40-32
2nd media timeout: Towson trailed 47-46
3rd media timeout: Towson ahead 57-53
4th media timeout: Towson ahead 66-59

Towson’s 2-3 zone offense: Successful in 10 of 22 possessions
Towson’s Offensive with freedom: Successful in 11 of 21 possessions
Towson’s m-2-m defense: only allowed East Carolina to score in 13 of 34 possessions.
Towson’s 2-3 zone defense: East Carolina only able to score 1 time in the 6 times the Tigers employed it.

SG Dominick Collins caught fire in 2nd half.
C Donny Flint stepped up his effort.
PF Jason Vickers had a very strong 2nd half.

Towson had trouble against the 2-3 zone defense in the first half, but solved it in the 2nd half.
Towson’s M-2-M defense solidified in the 2nd half and stymied the Pirates.
Towson was -4 in rebounding but +11 for turnovers. Towson only hit 38% of their FG’s but defensive pressure that produced 28 turnovers by East Carolina (most of these were in the 2nd half) gave the Tigers more attempts than the Pirates.

While the Tigers played uninspired ball in the first half, they turned it around in the 2nd half and roared into the lead. To beat Towson, need to apply pressure defense the entire 40 minutes to keep them from getting easy baskets and prevent runs. Also since their starters are much stronger than their reserves, draw fouls to get starters in foul trouble and onto the bench.

Final Score: Towson-75, Eastern Carolina-65

Towson’s top players:

SG Dominick Collins-18 pts; C Donny Flint-13 pts, 4 blocks; PG Shaun White-11 pts, 5 assists; PF Jason Vickers-10 pts, 6 reb, 4 stls; SF Wayne Burrough-9 pts, 9 reb, 4 assists, 3 stls.

[Wayne23]

4th media TO score and final score don't jibe unless Delaware scored -1 point from then on. That's a hell of a defensive effort!

[PointGuard]

OHH, typo...it was supposed to be "Towson AHEAD" rather than "Towson BEHIND". I corrected it. Thanks.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 14, 2022: Towson Tigers (7-1) @ Virginia Tech Hokies (1-5)

Deon Penn, PF

Charleston got by the Hokies in overtime. We want to get a win here also. Virginia Tech’s strength is their interior players. The four players they have playing PF and C have combined to average 42 ppg. So we need to clamp down defensively to keep them in control. I like the challenge but playing tough defensively means we also have to keep out of foul trouble. Not an easy task, particularly if the refs are quick on the whistle. Reserve PG Matt Faust is nursing an injury so his court time will be limited which puts pressure on Shaun White, Dominick Collins and Ryan Taylor to split up most of the time at PG and SG.

I got tagged for a questionable foul on Virginia Tech’s first possession of the game and we fell behind 6-0 before finally getting on the board. Three minutes later I got away with one…made contact with my man but he got called for moving his pivot foot. We took a 5 minute lead, only to drop behind by 5 a few minutes later. We ground it out and gradually overtook the Hokies to finish the half on top 32-25 by pounding the boards which is critical since neither team shot well in the half. C Donny Flint and I shared scoring honors with 9 point apiece. Donny also hauled down an impressive 11 boards in what was an ugly scoring half.

I picked up my 3rd foul early in the 2nd half so it was back to the bench. Donny Flint continued to dominate the Hokies on both ends of the court. We maintained a small lead throughout the entire 2nd half. I got back in and made a couple buckets but was whistled for a 4th foul so Jason Vickers and I pretty much ended up splitting the 40 minutes. We came away with a solid 67-59 win. Coach Fed should be happy with our rebounding since we grabbed 47 compared to Virginia Tech’s 31. But he’ll be all over us the next few days in practice since we had 19 turnovers. We held their 4 big men to a total of 25 points, so I’m feeling good about that.

C Donny Flint crushed the Hokies with 20 points, 19 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and a steal. Even though I only played 21 minutes, I scored 14 and grabbed 10 rebounds plus had 5 blocks. PG Shaun White finished with 12 points and 6 assists.