Towson men’s basketball won its 12th consecutive game to move to 18-9 overall and 13-1 in the Coastal Athletic Association with an 80-54 victory against Monmouth on Feb. 15, leaving the Tigers with a two-game lead in the conference with four regular-season games to play.
As usual, defense led the way for Towson, which is second in the conference in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, a college hoops analytics site. The Tigers put forth a swarming effort to contain the Hawks, who shot 37.7 percent from the floor for the game and 23.5 percent in the first half.
Everyone got in on the fun on the offensive end for Towson, with nine players scoring at least two points and four reaching double digits. Long story short, it’s a good time to be a Tiger.
“They’re having a lot of fun. I told them this in November, right or wrong, the fun is in the winning,” Towson head coach Pat Skerry said. “That’s what we do this for. I don’t even know how many in a row it is, but we’ve won a few in a row and that’s probably a lot of fun. It beats the alternative. You don’t have to listen to Coach screaming at you or longer film sessions. They like each other. I can’t say enough about how good a guys we have and what good representatives they are of Towson.”
Junior wing Christian May scored 13 points on 5 of 10 shooting, but once again his biggest contributions came in slowing down sophomore guard Abdi Bashir Jr., who averages 20.2 points per game but scored just five points on 2 of 11 shooting with May shadowing him for much of the game.
Skerry believes May is the best defensive player in the CAA, and May certainly proved his coach right against Monmouth.
“I feel like I’ve always been a good defender my whole career,” May said. “It’s just a mindset going into the game defensively — just guarding the best player every game, wanting to shut them down, that’s something I take pride in. I feel like I’ve been doing that for awhile now, but I think I’ve just elevated it to a higher level the past couple of games. Whatever it takes for us to win, honestly — if it’s me guarding the best player getting stops the whole game, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Next, Towson has games at Elon on Feb. 20 and Campbell on Feb. 22. If the Tigers win at least one of those road games, they’ll be in a position to clinch the outright CAA regular-season championship once they return home. Towson hosts William & Mary on Feb. 27 and Hampton on March 1.
The Tigers last won a CAA regular-season title in 2021-22.
“Towson’s a great place and it’s only on the rise,” Skerry said. “There’s a great sense of collaboration and spirit, and that’s only going to grow. We can be a good vehicle for that where people can come out and get to see a great, great place … and have a great time.”
ODUNOWO PLAYS BIG FOR UMBC
UMBC doesn’t have a player taller than 6-foot-7 on its roster, but transfer-portal pickup Josh Odunowo is playing bigger than his height to help make up for the lack of size in the team’s frontcourt.
The 6-foot-6, 215-pound forward is averaging 11.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 27 games this season following a three-year career at Columbia. A native of Laurel, Odunowo had one of his best games of the season in an 81-77 win against Binghamton on Feb. 13, scoring 17 points, grabbing nine rebounds and swatting five shots.
Odunowo has even earned the opportunity to shoot threes, though he’s 0-for-9 from deep so far this season.
“I think Josh deserves everything he gets,” Retrievers head coach Jim Ferry said. “Josh is in this gym every single day. He works extremely hard on improving his game and then when it comes to practice or game time he’s one of the most unselfish humans I’ve ever been around. His leadership has been priceless. His work ethic is unbelievable. He’s in this gym every day. Some people might be, ‘Hey Jimmy, why are you letting him shoot threes?’ Ultimately because he deserves to. He puts the work in.”
Odunowo is comfortable with the challenge of protecting the rim for a team that has no traditional shot-blockers.
“I think for me, shot-blocking always came naturally,” he said. “I feel like it’s just in certain scenarios I get to show it. I feel like my whole life shot-blocking always came naturally to me. I love playing defense. But credit to the team, I feel like we play team defense. Everybody’s in their gaps. People are on their body. I’m just coming up cleaning [up]. My teammates are the ones doing the hard work. I’m just coming up to clean it up.”
UMBC is 12-15 overall and 4-8 in the America East. The Retrievers’ final road game of the regular season comes against UMass Lowell on Feb. 20 before finishing with a three-game homestand.
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