Towson men’s basketball defeated Drexel, 59-58, on Jan. 19 for its third straight CAA win after beginning league play with four consecutive losses.
If the Tigers can get on a roll and make a run at a CAA tournament double-bye — which go to the top four teams in the conference at the end of the regular season — they’ll likely look back on their comeback victory against the Dragons.
Towson trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half before going to the locker room down 12. Drexel kept the Tigers at arm’s length for most of the second half and had an eight-point lead with less than four minutes to play.
Towson had to execute at a high level down the stretch in order to have a chance to win at the end … and that’s exactly what happened. Freshman wing Jaquan Womack said the Tigers were constantly encouraging each other during the game even though they barely led throughout the course of the game.
“[Head coach Pat Skerry has] been talking about, ‘What does it take to break you?’ Today, we were constantly saying that in the huddle. ‘Don’t break, don’t break,'” Womack said. “We know we’re a good team, so we’re capable of coming back from any deficit.”
After Towson fell behind, 56-48, with 3:43 left in regulation, baskets by stars Tyler Tejada and Dylan Williamson brought the Tigers to within four. Then Tejada got to the charity stripe and made both free throws, bringing the deficit to two with 1:30 left.
After that, Drexel’s Shane Blakeney hit a tough contested jumper to bump the lead back to four in what appeared to be a possible dagger. But on the ensuing possession, Womack turned a loose ball after a Williamson missed floater into a three-point play with 39.9 seconds left:
The Dragons had a chance to extend its 58-57 lead on the ensuing possession. However, Tigers graduate guard Jack Doumbia Jr. was fouled by Kevon Vanderhorst when both battled for a rebound. Doumbia hit both free throws for a 59-58 lead and then put the game away on the defensive end:
Towson scored 11 of the game’s final 13 points.
“Time to win, time to get some stops. Don’t break,” Doumbia said of the Tigers’ mindset in crunch time. “We were down the whole game. We came a long way, so we just knew that it’s just time to get a stop. That’s really what we pride ourselves on — defense, defense, defense, not breaking. We didn’t shoot great for the game, but we knew if we could get stops, at some point shots will go in. That’s kind of what you saw out there.”
Skerry and his players shouted out the SECU Arena crowd of 3,188 for helping the Tigers get to the finish line.
“I want to thank the crowd. For 1 o’clock on a holiday, that energy down the stretch was absolutely the difference in the game,” Skerry said. “It certainly wasn’t the coaching, I can tell you that.”
“For me, I’m an energy junkie, so when there are a lot of people there, I’m just going to play 10 times better, especially at the end right there,” Womack said. “I just love a crowd like that, fighting for the rebound, getting the and-one, I couldn’t even control myself, for real.”
However, Skerry acknowledged multiple times that Towson was fortunate to come away with a victory. The Tigers hit just 20 of 61 shots from the field (32.8 percent) and 4 of 16 shots from 3-point range (25 percent), though 18 offensive rebounds and 21 free-throw attempts helped keep them within striking distance throughout the game.
Towson’s struggles from the field are nothing new. The Tigers are shooting 38.1 percent from the field and 25.8 percent from 3-point range during conference play. Opposing teams sag off Towson’s shooters, clog the lane and make life difficult for drivers.
Skerry does not want his players’ shooting struggles to get in their heads.
“We just can’t look sad when we’re missing shots,” the coach said. “It’s just what I said at halftime. ‘I don’t know, do you want someone to give you a hug?’ Everyone sees that we’re missing shots. We’ve got to do other things. We’ve got to move on. It’s January. It’s late in the year. We’ve got to be tough. We’ve got to be Towson.”
Towson (11-9, 3-4 CAA) hits the road for games at Elon on Jan. 22 and North Carolina A&T on Jan. 24 before returning home. Elon (12-7, 4-2) in particular will provide a stiff test.
“This is the best our league’s been in the last decade,” Skerry said. “There are so many athletic directors and presidents that have made so much more of a commitment, and you can see why on any night, really, anyone can beat anybody.”
Photo Credit: Max Pletch/Towson Athletics