Brantley leads CofC over MBB, 73-62

[mat1992 2,243]

http://towsontigers.com/news/2017/12/30/mens-basketball-towson-drops-caa-opener-at-charleston.aspx

Junior Jarrell Brantley scored 24 points and made 4-of-6 from 3-point range to lead Charleston over Towson, 73-62 to open CAA play. Towson was led by Eddie Keith's career-high of 20 points. But the Tigers shot just 9-of-26 from the field in the second half and made just 5-of-16 from beyond the arc for the game. They also made just 9-of-15 from the line and missed converting several three-point plays with misses (Morsell went 0-for-2). Defensively, Towson struggled, allowing the Cougars to shoot 51.2 percent from the field and 9-of-21 from 3-point range.

Personally, I thought the pace was too slow in the second half. Towson walked the ball up the court and by the time they got into their offense, there may have been 10-12 seconds on the shot clock. Martin (3-10 FG) and Morsell (3-5, 6 pts) were non-factors. Morsell's third foul on a reach after a missed free throw early in the second half was devastating. Those are the type of plays seniors just can't make.

Here are some of Skerry's comments on the radio after the game

  "We hurt ourselves defensively. Just didn't guard. Brantley destroyed us. We didn't do much statistically. We fouled too much. They made threes. We still have those moments where we splinter. We have to figure that out to beat a good team on the road"

"We tend to experiment offensively. That's not a good decision against good teams.. We have a saying that says, 'When the possession starts poorly, it ends poorly.'"

"More concerned about the mental toughness of my group now. When it gets a little hairy, Mike missed a FT and then gambled and fouled. Six or seven guys have that one little sequence. That's too much."

 

[BradTU 18]

Ugh.

[Chris Datres 424]

Did not get to see a second of the game today so I can't comment on anything that happened.  However, we knew that this road game at Charleston was going to be a giant test.  It didn't work out.  Nothing is lost.  But they gotta go to Elon on Tuesday and get back on the right track.  Can't be starting in a hole again like we did last year.

[mat1992 2,243]

I won’t say nothing is lost. We failed our first test miserably. This is the team we have to beat to win the title and we barely competed in the second half. We start 3 seniors and a junior but as Skerry insinuated that mental toughness is not a strongsuit.

[mat1992 2,243]

BTW, I'm not giving up on this team. I'm just pointing out the obvious and that's some things I worried about at the beginning of the season. One of them was a lack of a post scorer. We had two last season in Davis and Moto when he wanted to be. We really don't have one you can count on this season. Gorham is getting there but he's probably another 10 pounds of muscle away from being a JD-type. Thomas just doesn't have the killer instinct or the athletic ability. At least Gorham showed a 3-point shot today. Look a what Brantley did at 6-7, 260 and with a three-point shot. He was incredible but then again, nobody really came out and defended him.

Sure, guard play is always going to be an issue against CofC, who has three great guards. When Morsell and Martin don't show up, we're done. They defended us great and without a dominant post guy to feed the ball to, they just defended the perimeter and helped out when we drove. Every time Zane drove left, there was a big to come over to block the shot.  We were only down 2 at the half but then Morsell picked up that third foul and it was over. Then the Towson drought came and we fell apart. McNeill couldn't get it done with Morsell out. That's an issue. While I don't think Travis Ingram is ready, I wonder if he just plays 5-10 minutes, that type of speed can help. The other thing I hated about the second half is how much we walked it up in the second half and played too slow of a pace. We needed to pick it up.