Timberlake scores 24 points in the second half to lead MBB over UNCW 56-53

[mat1992 2,231]

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=428928

Let's start with the recap. If we wanted to just do good, bad and ugly. The first half would be ugly and the second half would be good. That was as poorly played an offensive first half since that 2011-12 season of 1-31. I'm sure we've had other bad ones but that half with 7-of-27 shooting and 0-of-10 from the three-point line, no assists and no turnovers. was as poorly as this team could play. The defense wasn't great, but it's tough to overcome nine turnovers which led to 12 points for UNCW.

It also didn't help that Jason Gibson (back) was out. I believe he was expected to play tonight, but as Pat Skerry said in the postgame, his back "locked up". They were expecting Gibson to come off the bench. The 6-1 point guard was banged up on a dive to the floor against Penn (came up holding his back), but did come back late in the game.

That meant Rahdir Hicks would have to start and while he played well defensively, he took just one shot. Ryan Conway played six minutes, took two shots, struggled defensively and had a bad turrnover. 

Skerry was so frustrated with the bench, he wound up playing 11 players without Gibson and got very little production. Sekou Sylla played 24 minutes but had three turnovers as he struggles to dribble the ball in traffic and can't finish with his right hand so he forces awkward left-handed shots. Chase Paar, Tyler Coleman and Chris Biekeu struggled in brief minutes. Christian May came into the game for Nygal Russell early in the second half and even though he didn't take a shot, he played reasonably well, showing his great bounce on the boards with two.

Speaking of great bounce, what else you can say about Timberlake's second half. Shooters can be streaky at times and would still like to see Nick get a few more at the basket. But he was amazingly clutch late in the game (aside from FT). Making that shot off the pass from Cam and just about everything that was open. He's really become the closest thing we have to a star and he also had a nice block. Seems like his D has gotten better throughout the years.

Cam Holden had another rough offensive game with 7 points on 3-of-11 shooting and 0-4 from three-point range. He did grab 7 boards and had 3 assists, but four turnovers. Defense was solid.

Charles Thompson is coming on in the two-man game and his jump hook is starting to come back. His weak-side defense was excellent in the second half. He had four blocks, 14 points, 7 boards and 3 dimes.

More later...

[mat1992 2,231]

 

[TSU88 1,070]

Pretty remarkable to win a game when you only have 4 guys score. This is clearly Timberlake’s team. What’s he avg, 25 ppg in the last 3 games? Hope Gibson won’t be out long. I think I’m starting to understand why Skerry didn’t go deep in the bench the first couple games.

4-0, with a 3-game sweep on the road, vs decent competition. Can’t ask for much more than that 

[Tiger12 26]

Tonight’s win should tell you something about this team. I don’t think this is a game we win last year and especially not two years ago. A friend of mine is a big UNCG fan and told me at half that this game wasn’t over. 
 

This team is winning in spite of themselves right now and I think this group is going to be something special when it all clicks. To win on the road, down 13, without Gibson is remarkable. There is stuff to be critical of sure, but let’s also enjoy this win. This was as impressive as come

4-0 feels sweet

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

5 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

Pretty remarkable to win a game when you only have 4 guys score. This is clearly Timberlake’s team. What’s he avg, 25 ppg in the last 3 games? Hope Gibson won’t be out long. I think I’m starting to understand why Skerry didn’t go deep in the bench the first couple games.

4-0, with a 3-game sweep on the road, vs decent competition. Can’t ask for much more than that 

4 games in and it’s clear, this isn’t last year. We won’t blow many teams out. It’s gonna be a slow grind. Thankfully uncg took the foot off the pedal in the second half.  
I’ll happily call out 25 as a d2 player in the  chat if it means he goes off and scores 25.

we haven’t played good this year so far and have 4 wins. The defense was pretty good but the offense and rebounding were atrocious  

 

 

[TSU88 1,070]

If the bench is a scoring desert (early returns suggest it might be, though hopefully that improves) Gibson becomes more important as a scoring option not named Timberlake, CT, or Holden 

[mat1992 2,231]

I think we played pretty good D overall and great D in the second half. It's tough to shoot 29% at home and it's not like they were getting wide open shots. What does that even mean took the foot off the pedal? They played great D in the first half and we played awful O. Pretty simple. We held them to 29% shooting from the field at home.

Russell is a very good defensive player. Maybe great. Charles was a +15. Other than a few possessions, he was very good on both ends. Hicks played well defensively. Problem with the last two is that they can't score though Russell shot 35% from 3-point range last season. Seems like we get transfers with decent shooting numbers and they start off or end poorly. He's a guy who needs to play at least 25 minutes.

[mat1992 2,231]

3 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

If the bench is a scoring desert (early returns suggest it might be, though hopefully that improves) Gibson becomes more important as a scoring option not named Timberlake, CT, or Holden 

Apparently, he practiced all week and just started feeling pain. I know the feeling and it's not fun. Maybe we need to limit his minutes in non-conference play and get Conway 5-7 minutes per game, even though you have to play him through the mistakes. If he's not ready for conference play, I guess he's more for the future. I was wrong about him, thinking that he could contribute early on. I'm not wrong about his ability to shoot, but you need more than that to play for this team. He's one of those guys who could have used a blowout game to play significant minutes. Apparently that's not going to happen yet with this team.

The guy who I think earned a few more minutes was May. Just has that athletic look and needs to play to get experience.

[mat1992 2,231]

Story

https://towsontigers.com/news/2022/11/17/mens-basketball-second-half-rally-pushes-towson-mens-basketball-past-uncg-56-53-first-4-0-start-in-division-i-program-history.aspx

[TigerFan54 102]

NT is putting up POY performances. Please, Nic, keep it up.