Williamson sparks MBB over Northeastern 83-76

[mat1992 2,237]

https://towsontigers.com/news/2024/2/1/mens-basketball-williamsons-career-night-leads-second-half-comeback-in-83-76-win-against-northeastern.aspx

 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

Hell of a second half by Dylan and Suliman to save us from a lackluster effort the first 25 minutes.  Bench came to play tonight. 
Big one on Saturday 

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

Who is next?????  Hofstra!  Keep it rolling coaches and players.   Proud Alum here wearing his custom made Charles Thompson long sleeve who was 8-8 from the foul line tonight.  
👏🐯🏀

[Chris Datres 424]

Great that they made the necessary adjustments at halftime, especially on the defensive end.  That stretch with 3 or 4 straight steals turned the game around.  Also great the the free throw shooting was a positive story this time.

[TSU88 1,074]

Ok, if you’ve never saw Kurk Lee play, you saw him tonight, in DWill. He’s not going to do this every night but damn, how refreshing is it to have a kid who can go 1-on-1 and take over a game?

Big sky point to CT, who’s foul shooting down the stretch was sparkling. And did you notice he hit a shot tonight facing the basket!!

So, I was very critical of Sulaiman in the chat room in the first half, but wow, he really stepped it up on D, and even on O, in the 2nd half.

Kudos to Tarke who played under control and dished out 5 assists and what can you say about Lowery’s D? 

I thought we were going to get blown out in the 1st half, but our D turned the game around in the 2nd half. And the FT  was phenomenal. Actually, beyond phenomenal. Can we bottle it?  What is this now, 18 straight home wins? I guess the irony is it’ll probably now be tougher than ever to get teams to come play us at home. 

The size of the crowd was disappointing, but it was engaged right from the beginning of the game & was louder than larger crowds we’ve had.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the conference tournament, but I’m going to enjoy this for now. This may be sacrilege, but , given what he’s got to work with, Skerry may be doing his best coaching job since he’s been here. The only real down note about tonight is Tejada is now officially in a funk, having scored I think a total of 8 points in the last three games. 

On to the Island of Long. 

 

 

 

[tualum 108]

A predicted win from the alum. On to the next one..

[mat1992 2,237]

Who would have thought that Towson and Northeastern would play a shootout? Nearly, 2,000 (1,950) tonight with an excitable student crowd that saw 51 second-half points. I almost felt that Sulaiaman and Williamson purposely wanted to get the fans going on that end of the floor by scoring or doing special, which Dylan did several times. Let's start with the Good, Bad and Ugly.

Good:

*My goodness was Williamson incredible for the second straight game in the second half. Shot 8-of-13 from the field and 5-of-9 from the 3-point line. Scored a career-high 26 points. The redshirt freshman isn't even starting, not that it matters, But in the last two games, he's shown that maybe he's the guy who can take over games. 

*More important, Dylan, Charles and Nendah combined to go 17-of-17. Towson, yes TOWSON, went 26-of-29 from the line. Practice does make perfect.

*Sulaiman had an outstanding second half as well, with four of the team's 10 steals. Some of those steals led to transition points and while Towson had just seven, but if felt like we pushed the ball more than we did all season. Also, pressed and trapped a little bit.

*Pace was fun tonight. Not a lot of fastbreak points but 15 between these two slow squads is decent.

*18 straight home wins. Unreal. 

Bad

*Defense. Very poor in the first half as the Huskies were able to penetrate with ease and get to the paint, before kicking it out to open 3-point shooters. Would like to see more Mekhi Lowery in a game where you can play him at the 4 against a smaller lineup. (Darlinstone Dubar?). 

NE shot 51.6% from the field and 6-of-13 from 3-point range in the first half. They shot 10 of 26 in the second half and 2 of 8 from beyond the arc

Ugly

*Outrebounded by 7. Messiah Jones with just one board.

*Christian May's offensive foul with under 3:00 left. Not a great decision to be kind. Give the ball to a point guard.

[sr16 161]

Lets keep this rolling, this is fun 

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

1 hour ago, TSU88 said:

Ok, if you’ve never saw Kurk Lee play, you saw him tonight, in DWill. He’s not going to do this every night but damn, how refreshing is it to have a kid who can go 1-on-1 and take over a game?

Big sky point to CT, who’s foul shooting down the stretch was sparkling. And did you notice he hit a shot tonight facing the basket!!

So, I was very critical of Sulaiman in the chat room in the first half, but wow, he really stepped it up on D, and even on O, in the 2nd half.

Kudos to Tarke who played under control and dished out 5 assists and what can you say about Lowery’s D? 

I thought we were going to get blown out in the 1st half, but our D turned the game around in the 2nd half. And the FT  was phenomenal. Actually, beyond phenomenal. Can we bottle it?  What is this now, 18 straight home wins? I guess the irony is it’ll probably now be tougher than ever to get teams to come play us at home. 

The size of the crowd was disappointing, but it was engaged right from the beginning of the game & was louder than larger crowds we’ve had.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the conference tournament, but I’m going to enjoy this for now. This may be sacrilege, but , given what he’s got to work with, Skerry may be doing his best coaching job since he’s been here. The only real down note about tonight is Tejada is now officially in a funk, having scored I think a total of 8 points in the last three games. 

On to the Island of Long. 

 

 

 

Emphasis on “enjoy this” 

Ways to go but this team is very intriguing. 
D-Will tonight off the bench..  Can’t steal “microwave” but being from Upper Marlboro he’s that guy who takes his 10 minute break and goes through 2-3 cigarettes 🚬 

What a run we are on!!! 

 

[mat1992 2,237]

So, five straight wins and 18 straight home wins. Didn't see this coming in non-conference play without Tarke or even with Tarke. Thought he would make the team competitive and better defensively. But he's done more than that. Stats are nothing special but since he's been added to the starting lineup, the team is 9-2. As for Marcus Watson and Radhir Hicks, I asked about them at the press conference and it doesn't appear that they will be playing this season. 

How good can this team be? It's a pretty enjoyable team to watch and nerve-wracking at times. But I kind of like the unpredictability. Last season, it was Timberlake giving you 20+, Holden 14 and 7 and Thompson 12 and 8. With this team, you never know. May could put up 20+ one night and Tarke the next or Williamson the next. Thompson is not giving you the consistent numbers of last season, though his conference numbers are better. For them to get to that next level, Tejada has to get his game back after hitting the wall. 

Trying to enjoy this team knowing that I didn't have huge expectations and that they are overachieving IMO in a lot of ways. Not easy when you are in press row and can't root, so I'll be rooting on Saturday, hoping we defend and rebound better against a team with two superstars. Like every team in this league, including us, they are flawed.