Williamson sparks MBB over Northeastern 83-76

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

3 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

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.

Well said.  Again the team parts seem to fit. Credit to Pat for shuffling the deck with subs tonight to get the right combination to work and as CT pointed out the players act like they are all starters. In this day and age when players get butt hurt by their role I don’t see any malcontents at all.  Cam was big for us last season and he’s having success in England but just maybe we didn’t have the same chemistry last season because he wanted to be the “alpha dog” every night. 
Like you mentioned..  any given night we could have a different player go off.  
In defense of Tejada..  he’s averaged close to 24 minutes a game through 22 games..  probably just has hit a wall is all.  He forced a 3 tonight early in first half 2 feet well behind the line… he’s gonna be fine and mark my words he’s gotta another “2” game winning shots this season.  
 

This board is so easy to crush these players and coaches and scrutinize eveey play of every game with all the technology at our disposable.   Remember Devin, Scooter and Company had some games where they struggled but we didn’t have this board etc. 

We all have good days and bad days and no different with sports. 

Enjoy this run..   support the team.  Push them to a CAA championship!   
 

[TuTiger10 9]

Nice to see them pull out a W where they would have fallen apart in years past. Keep it rolling!

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

10 hours 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. 

 

 

 

Agree. Being a Pat basher, I give him credit. I think he’s done a fantastic job the last 4 weeks. After going 6-6 in OOC and losing that first league game, to sit 13-8 and 7-2 is pretty impressive. The parts seem to fit better this year and the freshmen have been big. Can contribute atleast 3 wins due to the late play of Williamson and Tejada in caa play. 
We have a yearly run like this and it typically comes to a screeching halt. Just the pessimist in me where I’m waiting for Lucy to pull the football away from us. Will and have enjoyed this run though. 
It is strange (not really!) how much better we play when Charles is not bringing the ball up. Our better play coincided with him playing in the actual post.  First half last night he brought it up atleast 4 times which led to nothing.  He’s a good passes out of the post. Get it to him there!

crowd was bad but what do you expect when you don’t market it or give away free tickets?  
 

Long Island will be tough tomorrow. That’s also a very hot team up there with 3 guards who can absolutely do everything. Gonna need the defense from lowery tarke May and Suliman in that one

[RundaPower 153]

Bit sloppy on defense last night.  However,  when focused , like last Saturday at UD, they can be fantastic.  Offensively,  gotta continue to move the ball and take quality shots.  I’m hoping for a focused and determined effort tomorrow.

[BK_Brian 31]

Are there video highlights of the game anywhere?

 

[Tiger93 299]

I believe the 51 second-half points were a season-high for points in a half. I could 10 half this year where we have scored 40 points (51 vs. Northeastern, 50 vs. Arcadia, 47 vs. Arcadia, 46 at UMBC, 45 vs. UMass, 44 at Charleston, 44 vs. Campbell, 43 vs. UMBC, 42 at Northeastern, 41 vs. Morgan State).

What an odd trend that in first halfs against Northeastern this year we have scored 49 points in 58 possession (0.845 points per possession) and shot 14-47 from the field (29/7%). However in the two second halfs, we have scored 93 points in 62 possessions (1.5 points per possession) and shot 27-49 (55%). 

This was the fifth time a Towson player scored 20 this year I believe. May did it the previous four times with 27 vs. UMass, 24 at UMBC, 23 at Delaware and 20 at Charleston. May's 19 points in a half was the most this year before last night when Williamson went for 23 points (7-9 FG, 4-5 3pt FG, 5-5 FT) in the second half. I can't remember the last time a Towson played dropped 20 in a half, but I didn't know May almost did it earlier this year. I am sure it has happened more recently then I can remember, but it still impressive. In the last two games, Willamson has dropped 37 points in the second half and shot 13-16 from the field. 

It was a really awful first 22 minutes of the game. With Towson trailing 45-38 at the 16:49 mark Sulaiman was subbed in. He had five points and three steals 3:52, and when he was subbed out at the the 12:42 mark Towson led 49-47. The guy has had a knack during this stretch to come up with a big steal or offensive rebound at some point in the game to spark us, and he kind of just took over this game defensively for three minutes or so to flip the momentum. Sulaiman finished 8 points , 4 steals and was a +15 on the court (only Williamson's +18 was higher). He did all that in 19 impactful minutes.  

This was one of those games where Charles Thompson also puts his imprint on everything. Thompson had 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals, and as was mentioned he was a mind-boggling 8-8 from the free-throw line. I like that the only guy to shoot double-figure shots from the field was the player who was hot with Williamson scoring 26 on 8-13 FG (5-9 from three). Nendah Tarke ended up with three blocks and five assists on the night, and he continues to exert his physical will on the game even when he doesn't score. Tarke and May each had a Towson-high 35 minutes. 

For the third time this year, Towson made more than 20 free throws in a game. Our season-high was 27 against Bryant, but it took us two overtimes and 43 attempts to get there. We also had 23 against UMass in 34 attempts. Towson made 26 in a tidy 29 attempts last night (89.7%). It was only the fifth time this year we have shot over 70% from the free throw line, and two of those have come in the last two games. The 89.7% was a season-high eclipsing 13-16 (81.3%) against Wake Forest. Last night was also the second time we hit double-figure steals. The first came against Arcadia. 

I said a week or so ago that we owned two of the best wins in the conference with our victories at Charleston and against Drexel. Well, UNC-W joined us by winning Charleston last night and Monmouth also did by winning against Drexel. Stony Brook and Charleston join us as the only teams to beat UNC-W.

My point is that the more tough wins against good teams we get the more we can raise our expectations. We are still the only CAA team to win at Delaware, and we are 4-0 against the combination of Drexel, UNC-W, Charleston and Delaware so far. UNC-W getting season sweep against Charleston is a big feather in their cap, and they join Towson as the only two teams who are undefeated for the whole season at home.

Hofstra's only loss at home in conference play is Charleston, and as has been stated a win in Hempstead would be a huge statement by Towson that we are ready to not just be near the top of the pack, but take over and try to lead the way. 

 

[mat1992 2,237]

2 hours ago, BK_Brian said:

Are there video highlights of the game anywhere?

 

They used to have highlights on Twitter or YouTube. Maybe there are copyright issues with Monumental.