Five in a row! MBB beats Elon 72-61

[mat1992 2,241]

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=283446

https://towsontigers.com/news/2020/1/23/towson-mens-basketball-uses-late-11-0-at-elon-for-fifth-straight-victory.aspx

Towson improved to 11-9 overall and 5-3 in the CAA after defeating Elon on the road 72-61 on Thursday night. Brian Fobbs led the Tigers with 20 points, but this game was won at the line where the Tigers shot 19 of 20 in the second half and 25 of 29 overall. Elon shot just 29.7% from the field and 9 of 35 from beyond the arc. They made 14 of 19 from the line.

Jason Gibson added 13 points for the Tigers with three turnovers and one assist. On the down side, Towson had 14 turnovers, several came on offensive fouls. Gibson had two late. One on an offensive foul on a crazy drive up 7 and he also had a turnover on an inbounds against full court pressure.

The Tigers were down by two at the half and some of that was due to Nakye Sanders struggling with two fouls. He played in just six minutes in the first half and 16 for the game. He fouled out with five points and four rebounds. Freshman Charles Thompson played 14 minutes and struggled with one point, three rebounds and was a -15.

Towson was actually at their best with Dennis Tunstall and Juwan Gray on the floor. Gray was just 1 for 6 from the floor but made 7 of 7 from the line and had 10 points. Tunstall had six points, seven rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes and was a +16.

The bottom line is that Towson has won five straight games, but realistically, they aren't beating William & Mary with 14 turnovers or if Sanders struggles with foul trouble. The three-point shooting was solid tonight at 9-for-19. That will help but defending Nathan Knight will require more than just Sanders, Thompson and Tunstall. Will probably require double teams but either way, this team continues to show that they were not as bad some people said after the 0-3 start. To get to that next level, they need to at least make it tough on W&M.

BTW, We are tied for third with Drexel, Hofstra and NE at 5-3. Drexel got crushed at NE tonight by 33 and Delaware shocked Hofstra on the road. 

 

[Chris Datres 424]

This conference doesn't make all that much sense right now.  Drexel hammers WM and then gets blasted at NE.  Goes to show that if you can win a few road games here and there and then hold serve at home, you're gonna work your way up the standings.  I never thought I'd see the day that I'd say 'thank God we can shoot free throws' but this streak has been fueled by exceptional performances at the free throw line.  When 4 of the 5 guys on the floor at the end of the game are all shooting 80% or better (whaaaaaat), you can close games out a lot easier...provided you don't turn the ball over against pressure.  

Will be interesting to see what kind of defensive gameplan we throw at WM.  Hopefully, someone is calling up the Drexel-WM game on FloSports on-demand and watching it on a loop at the hotel tonite and the bus ride tomorrow.  Drexel somehow had a blueprint and if we're gonna steal one, we need to match it.

[mat1992 2,241]

2 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

This conference doesn't make all that much sense right now.  Drexel hammers WM and then gets blasted at NE.  Goes to show that if you can win a few road games here and there and then hold serve at home, you're gonna work your way up the standings.  I never thought I'd see the day that I'd say 'thank God we can shoot free throws' but this streak has been fueled by exceptional performances at the free throw line.  When 4 of the 5 guys on the floor at the end of the game are all shooting 80% or better (whaaaaaat), you can close games out a lot easier...provided you don't turn the ball over against pressure.  

Will be interesting to see what kind of defensive gameplan we throw at WM.  Hopefully, someone is calling up the Drexel-WM game on FloSports on-demand and watching it on a loop at the hotel tonite and the bus ride tomorrow.  Drexel somehow had a blueprint and if we're gonna steal one, we need to match it.

I think that game was a bit fluky Chris. The Drexel win. They held everybody but Knight (28 pts) to under 30% shooting. You can double Knight, but he's a good passer out of that. Or just give him his 25-30pts and hope that everybody else goes cold. Tonight, Van Vliet had 22 points, while Knight had 19 and 11. They put up 88. We can't outscore them. Will need to hold them to 75 or less and hope we shoot lights out. Sanders has to have a huge game and force Knight or Van Vliet to play D. I'll assume that Tunstall or Gray will match up on the 7-foot Van Vliet.

[mat1992 2,241]

Highlights

 

[mat1992 2,241]

Weird stat of the night. Towson has won five straight conference games overall and four straight by 8 or more points. That's the first time we've done that in terms of winning four straight conference games by that margin since 1994.

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

Didn’t get to watch this one (sad I missed southern Baptist PBP). Tracked it until we got down 5 under 10. Looked now and surprised at the score! Not expecting that

Stats show we shot very well! Especially for a road game (yes they don’t play defensive welll but). Would have expected this to be a wider margin. Looks like we got killed on the boards.  Not a good sign but don’t want to comment as I didn’t see. Was it their long range shots or sanders foul trouble the reason that Elon ELON got 19 offensive rebounds?!

glad they played with some resolve and pulled it out late. 

[mat1992 2,241]

2 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Didn’t get to watch this one (sad I missed southern Baptist PBP). Tracked it until we got down 5 under 10. Looked now and surprised at the score! Not expecting that

Stats show we shot very well! Especially for a road game (yes they don’t play defensive welll but). Would have expected this to be a wider margin. Looks like we got killed on the boards.  Not a good sign but don’t want to comment as I didn’t see. Was it their long range shots or sanders foul trouble the reason that Elon ELON got 19 offensive rebounds?!

glad they played with some resolve and pulled it out late. 

I would say the long-range shots and long rebounds were killing us, but nothing against Charles Thompson, but he should have played about five less minutes and we should have gone more with Gray and Tunstall playing together. So sure, not having Sanders for 24 minutes played a big part. Guards also have to rebound better and secure those boards. We got outhustled a few times, but it's nothing to worry about overall. If we would have gotten five more defensive rebounds, we would have won by 15 or so points. The transition game was working tonight off of misses.

[BK_Brian 31]

Looks like shooting 29% (which Elon did) simply creates tons of rebounding opportunities, as each team had 36 boards despite Elon having 12 more offensive boards

[mat1992 2,241]

It's why Sanders has to stay on the floor and for the most part, he has this year. Officiating was very questionable, including Sanders' last foul. He does tend to reach a lot and was called for a flagrant for holding on to a Elon players' uniform as he was cutting to the basket. I almost think he becomes a refs' target because he is physical and will get a few ticky tack calls.

[BK_Brian 31]

BTW, its impressive that the Hens defeated Hofstra especially since Ryan Allen was 0-9, including 0-8 from three.  The Hens were 3-20 from three.

Edited January 24, 2020 by BK_Brian