Jump to content
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
Sign in to follow this  
mat1992

Timberlake leads MBB to 73-58 win over New Mexico

Recommended Posts

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=365599

Nicolas Timberlake scored 25 points, including a career-high six three-pointers in 40 minutes to lead Towson over New Mexico 73-58 in the consolation game of the New Mexico Invitational. The Tigers led from wire-to-wire, opening up a 12-0 lead and never really looked back. The Lobos put on a desperate full-court press late in the game and closed the lead to 13 at one point. Towson struggled some against the press and played stall ball the last few minutes, but they were able to put the game away mainly due to defense and rebounding.

The Tigers outrebounded the Lobos by 14 and held them to 32% from the field and 32% from beyond the arc. Towson shot 47% from the field and 41% (9-22) from beyond the arc. Terry Nolan added 15 points, 3 steals, 5 assists and 4 rebounds (1-5 FT) in 38 minutes. Radhir Hicks went scoreless in 34 minutes, but has eight rebounds. Cam Holden had a solid game with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 38 minutes with two steals.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Somehow I lost the quotes from the postgame, but I know Coach Skerry mentioned how they will need to look at the rotation when Antonio Rizzuto, Jason Gibson, and Juwan Gray return, hopefully next Thursday against LIU at home. I think it's going to be tough to take Radhir Hicks out of the lineup, despite the fact that he's not going to give you DD points. He's so good defensively and is getting better at running the team. With Nolan and Holden, he doesn't have to run the offense all the time. I thought Darrick Jones Jr. played hard, but not sure where he fits. Maybe as the 10th man or during pressing situations. You basically had Chase Paar as the only bench rotation guy this tournament with Jones and Chris Biekeu as the seventh and eighth guys. It's no wonder why you see the big minutes for Holden (38), Timberlake (40) and Nolan (38). 

Timberlake was fantastic. I know the shooting percentages were poor this season and last season, but he was super-confident tonight. He has the nice 3-point stroke as long as he doesn't hesitate. Forget the mid-range shots. Just shoot 3s and get some baskets in transition. Nolan had the first layup of the game and he's finishing better off the dribble. Some of those 3-pointers were a bit much and the FT shooting, but I thought definitely, he was excellent. Very active hands notight.

Really good win despite those losses and the fact that Jamal Mashburn Jr. is a walking bucket and Jaelen House is a pretty good player. Wasn't impressed with their post players and they will have many issues on the boards this year. Kind of a transition year for them with Richard Pitino taking over.

TBH, pleasantly surprised about how well we played from start to finish and if you're Pitino, why not press early on against a tired team? He had the deeper bench, but I guess he thought we would stop making shots.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

With the exception of the clockball at the 5:00 mark and the struggles with the press break, there are zero complaints about this one.  They seemed to have even more energy in this one than last nite.  Real nice to put together a 40-minute performance and pound someone good.
 

I didn’t hear the announcers tonite but they kept mentioning last nite that we were picked 8th in the CAA.  If we did a re-rank after 3 weeks, I wonder where we’d land. 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

With the exception of the clockball at the 5:00 mark and the struggles with the press break, there are zero complaints about this one.  They seemed to have even more energy in this one than last nite.  Real nice to put together a 40-minute performance and pound someone good.
 

I didn’t hear the announcers tonite but they kept mentioning last nite that we were picked 8th in the CAA.  If we did a re-rank after 3 weeks, I wonder where we’d land. 

I think we started playing stall ball around the 8:00 mark and we didn't score a basket the last 3:40ish. I would prefer stalling at the 4:00 mark and then running offense at the 10 second mark. Not letting the shot clock go to 2 seconds before throwing up a prayer. The stall ball/four corners made sense due to the lead and the fact we were probably tired. Surprised that Pitino never went the fouling route, which was fine for Towson fans.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I guess other than the Oregon State W years ago, this is the biggest win vs a “name” program during the Skerry era. Especially encouraging given that we did it without 3 of our rotation players, and having played the night before. Helluva game for Timberlake. I wouldn’t count on too many more 25 point games from him, but hopefully this will boost his confidence going forward. With Holden & Nolan, we’re going to need a 3rd scoring option. Maybe Timberlake (along with occasionally Gibson, Rizzuto and Gray) can be that guy, and avg 10-12 ppg 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll say this again. Hicks is the difference. Yes, Holden is a terrific all-around player and Nolan can score. He's super athletic and terrific in transition. I think Rizzuto will be fine on both ends of the floor. But Hicks is the electric and energetic point guard we've lacked in transition and on the defensive end. I wouldn't say we're the 80s Lakers, but we are running even when we're not forcing turnovers, Holden is pushing the ball and Hicks, who had 8 rebounds, is as quick a point guard as we've had in forever. He's only going to get better as the season goes on and yes, the shooting isn't there yet. I think he'll be limited to layups, short jumpers and floaters but he also went 3-for-3 last night, so it's not like he can't do it. He just somebody who needs to work on that three ball. We had 10 fastbreak points and I know that seems like nothing, but we probably had four or five more baskets in transition that turned into hard fouls. They just put us at the line and for the most part, we converted.

I love the fact that we can have Hicks, Nolan, Gibson or Holden the break and Timberlake, Nolan, Holden, Rizzuto and Gray fill the wings and finish in transition. No, we're not going to shoot 40% from 3pt or 47% from the field after the season is done, but can find other ways to score. If we can get 20 points in transition and that includes finishing at the line, that will take pressure off of our half-court offense, which can get stagnant at times. But was terrific in the first half.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Chris Datres said:

With the exception of the clockball at the 5:00 mark and the struggles with the press break, there are zero complaints about this one.  They seemed to have even more energy in this one than last nite.  Real nice to put together a 40-minute performance and pound someone good.
 

I didn’t hear the announcers tonite but they kept mentioning last nite that we were picked 8th in the CAA.  If we did a re-rank after 3 weeks, I wonder where we’d land. 

Same. The stall ball and “press break” was awful. Great first 35. And timberlakes best game in career by far!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Good to see Nick Timby have a night on national TV. We were just saying how bad a mid range shooter he is the night before and then get goes off and catches fire in this game. I think this is the best early tournament we have had in the skerry era lots of positives coming out of Vegas. We fought hard and earned respect. But still a few things can be improved: press break, stallball, wide open lay ups. Excited to see how we complete against the rest of the CAA this is a fun team to watch

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

Footer title

This content can be configured within your theme settings in your ACP. You can add any HTML including images, paragraphs and lists.

Footer title

This is an example of a list.

Footer title

This content can be configured within your theme settings in your ACP. You can add any HTML including images, paragraphs and lists.

Footer title

This content can be configured within your theme settings in your ACP. You can add any HTML including images, paragraphs and lists.

×