Towson men’s basketball completed its nonconference schedule with a 72-47 win against Sacred Heart on Dec. 22, using an explosive second-half run to take care of the visitors.
The Pioneers were ahead, 41-37, with less than 14 minutes to play in regulation, but the Tigers finished the game on a 35-6 run to end nonconference play in grand fashion. Towson head coach Pat Skerry called it “about as good of a last 12, 13 minutes as we’ve had all season.”
The Tigers scored 14 consecutive points across about three minutes to trigger the run, highlighted by a steal-and-score by graduate guard Jack Doumbia Jr. and two 3-pointers by redshirt junior guard Dylan Williamson.
Towson head coach Pat Skerry credited his team’s defense for the 35-6 run …
“When we play with great pace and aggressiveness on the defensive end of the floor, it makes the game easier on offense,” Skerry said.
… and so did star junior Tyler Tejada.
“Once we all lock in, connect as a group on the defensive [end], it can get scary, as you can see,” Tejada said.
Speaking of Tejada, it was a big day for the 6-foot-9 wing out of Teaneck, N.J. He scored a game-high 22 points on 9 of 18 shooting, bringing his career total to 1,004 points. He became the 32nd player to ever reach 1,000 points at Towson.
Tejada was thrilled to reach the milestone.
“It means everything,” he said. “I remember when I did it in high school. Being able to do it again in college, it’s a testament to all the hard work I’ve put in. It was a really special moment, especially to do it here at home.”
It is becoming less and less common for quality players to stay long enough at one institution to score 1,000 points, but Skerry has had better luck than many of his counterparts in keeping standout players in recent years.
“We’d like to continue to buck that trend and keep good players here and let them get their 1,000 points,” Skerry said.
The Tigers kick off CAA play with a road trip through Virginia that takes them to William & Mary (Dec. 29) and Hampton (Dec. 31). They’ve had an opportunity to prepare for the 18-game conference slate for the past six weeks or so with a challenging schedule that ranks No. 53 in the country, according to KenPom, a college hoops analytics site.
The highlight of Towson’s nonconference effort was winning on back-to-back days against Rhode Island and Liberty in Kissimmee, Fla., just prior to Thanksgiving, though the Tigers couldn’t keep up with Houston, Kansas or UCF on the road.
“I’d like to be a couple games better, but if I took a lie detector test, I knew a couple of those were going to be tough,” Skerry said. “I think we’ve figured out some things about our team moving forward.”
This Towson season hasn’t featured many surprises to this point. As usual, Skerry’s crew is strong defensively and operates in deliberate fashion. The Tigers are tops in the CAA in adjusted defensive efficiency and are among the slowest teams in the country in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom. And Towson is still led by Tejada (17.5 points per game) and Williamson (15.4) on the offensive end of the floor.
Skerry has to sort through some injury issues prior to the start of conference play. Junior guard Jaiden Cole suffered a potentially serious knee injury in a recent practice, while redshirt senior forward Abdou Samb is dealing with an Achilles issue. As such, Skerry has to determine whether to burn the redshirts for freshmen Jon Barton and Brandon Holmes, though redshirt senior guard Ryan Conway is due back soon.
“Unfortunately injuries can affect you, so it might force us to figure out some things we’ve got to tweak in practice a little bit,” Skerry said.
Towson feels like it left a couple of nonconference wins on the table, but the Tigers like where they stand.
“Nonconference didn’t exactly go the way we wanted it to overall record-wise, but we feel like we’re trending in the right direction, making big steps every day, getting better every day, so we have a lot of confidence going into Dec. 29,” Tejada said.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Towson Athletics