MBB falls at Saint Mary's 76-69

[mat1992]

Tyler Tejada led the Tigers with 18 points on 8-of-20 shooting, but that wasn't enough as they fell to the Gaels of Saint Mary's 76-69 on Monday night to open the season. Tejada led three double-digit scorers including Christian May (10pts, 7 rebs) and Dylan Williamson (15pts, 6-11 FG). The Gaels had six players in double digits including three players who scored 14 points apiece. 

Saint Mary's won this game because they shot 46.3% from the field and 22 of 29 (75.9%) from the line. And outrebounded Towson by 11. The Tigers shot 42.2% from the field and just 4-of-13 from three-point range (30.8%). They also struggled (again) from the line, shooting just 11-of-19 (57.9%). On the bright side, Towson committed just seven turnovers and had 13 assists. Mekhi Lowery came off the bench to score nine points, dish out four assists, block two shots and record two steals.

Center was an expected issue and it was a tough test considering that their backup center Harry Wessels is 7-1, 275 and starting center MIthcell Saxen is 6-10, 250. Towson started Abdou Samb (6-8, 220), who played just 12 minutes and was involved in a double-technical foul in the second half and never played again. Freshman Caleb Embeya played 14 minutes, scored five points and grabbed three rebounds. Messiah Jones added four points and one board with three turnovers in 15 minutes. At 6-6, 235, he was in the land of the giants. 

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=549843&vislive=tows

[mat1992]

It's late, but before I go to bed, I want to commend the effort. This was a game in which you wish we had CT and even CP against that size. Maybe we win that game because Charlie is not going to get destroyed on the boards like our centers did. But we're not used to this. Usually, we have a 6-7 or 6-8, 245-pound play big man or a Bilal Dixon or Alex Thomas big and slowish 5-man. We don't have that and won't all year. But they still need to rebound and hopefully this game will show that if we don't rebound (-11). It's not just on the centers, but Tejada and May (7 rebs) have to help out. Lowery (3 rebs) and Tarke (6 rebs) as well. Jones did a nice job in the second half of boxing out the much bigger Saxen and Wessels.

I thought Tejada was great driving to the middle and shooting with his right hand floater going left or right. One time, he drive and shot it with his left hand. It missed badly and they scored in transition on the other end. Shot selection needs to get better and I'm not sure he's ready to be the ISO king where they just clear out for "the Ticket". Didn't love that. They had 16 fast break points which I'm sure PS wasn't thrilled about (we had 9). We all expected this to be a 60-45 type of game, but both teams ran more than expected. I think we would had a lot more than 9 Fstbreak points had we rebounded. I'm not as upset as the defensive boards as I was us in the first half miss shots (and we missed a lot) and didn't crash the offensive glass. That's like blasphemy for Towson basketball not rebounding our own shots. Just weird

Thought May played well even though he shot just 4-of-13 from the field and 0-3 from the three-point line. He had a block that they didn't give him and a great dunk on the baseline. Driving hard to the basket, which I loved. But the FTs (2-5) are a problem and that FT against Charleston (airball) he just has to get over.

Williamson had some nice shots getting to the basket and went 2-of-2 on his three's. Like to see him spread the ball around a little more and more of him and Lowery in the backcourt (not Tarke). His defense can still be a problem at times against guards who are just as athletic and bigger.  If they can get in more transition and rebound the ball, both of those guys will be fun on transition. We should call him Mekhi "Sky" Lowery because the sky is the limit wit him. A couple of nice drives, he hit his only FT attempt (yay!) and had four dimes with two blocks and two steals in 26 minutes.

Overall, solid first effort. Didn't really come that close to getting the win, but didn't come close to getting blown out either. 

We did have 25 fouls and had five in the first 4:30. Most were blatant. Some you just expect on the road. 

 

[Chris Datres]

Yayyyyy...another frickin moral victory.  This game's result was not in doubt from the 5:00 mark of the first half on.  For a team that has all this experience, they still do the same dumb crap that will prevent them from getting over the top.  The offense is hot garbage with all this iso crap and hardly any ball movement.  It's amazing to me that we had more assists than SMC did because it seemed all we did was drive into the lane and hope for the best.  Free throws, what a surprise, still terrible.  Do these guys even bother practicing them?  If you're gonna chuck from 3, you better be 75% from the free throw line MINIMUM.  The only improved player I saw out there tonight was Lowery on the offensive end.  It looks like he's worked on a lot of his flaws from last year at that end and his length is going to be very advantageous when getting to the rack.  Samb & Embeya look like projects on the block but in the Skerry mold of defense first and maybe they can luck their way into a couple of dunks.  

Defensively, they figured something out in the 2nd half plus SMC wasn't hitting much from the outside.  I had forgotten about Saxen and when I saw him, I figured he'd tear us apart.  Then they bring in that sequoia off the bench and they should have ruled the paint.  But Jones did a really nice job on them defensively and the guards helped out just enough to be able to get out on the guards.  The fouls, though, geez, gotta stop with those.  Way too much to start the game.  But we do all that work to cut it to 6 and have a ton of momentum and Tejada has to play heroball and throw up some garbage fadeaway 3 that is an airball.  Then we get it to 4 with the ball and Tejada tosses up some silly stuff in the lane, SMC goes down and scores on a putback and we're not getting any closer again.  You played in enough close games last year that you should know how to handle them but yet again, we crap ourselves when the going gets tough against a decent team.  

When you have this much experience, you shouldn't be making the same mistakes you made all of last season.  And after what I saw today, all of those who think we're finishing better than Charleston may want to ask for a do-over.

[Moleman1]

WOW! With just a little tweaking here & there, a couple of guys improving their weak spots, and we just may have something this season. Didn't have the pleasure of seeing the game, but by all accounts, an impressive start.. Thanks for the write-up, Matt🐅🐯

[Bay Area Tiger]

I got to sit with Spiro and talk everything Towson for a good 15-20 minutes before the game.  Gem of a man.  

After the game I met the entire Tejada family and they were super nice and he’s a great ambassador for Towson University. 

Gaels Gymnasium was well attended and very loud..  their students are always obnoxious but their older fans always knowledgeable and respectful.   So many of them kept commenting how impressed they were with Tejada & Williamson and that our team is gonna be really good come March.

Tejada shot a few ill advised deep 3’s but overall had a few shots go in and out and of course back rim.   He’s an all CAA calibur player who is only gonna get better the rest of the way.   DWill needs to take more shots plain and simple..  he’s really fun to watch.  May I thought played his ass off and I just want to see him run a 2 man play with Tejada more often as they have solid chemistry.  Samb played hard defensively and did as best he could with Saxon.  Got the silly tech and PS ripped him a new one. 

Caleb took his lumps tonight but I loved seeing him start the second half and that kid is gonna be really good.  I like his effort intensity and instincts.  He wasn’t some scared freshman out there.  Had some flex to him.  
 

Lowery can do it all and he’s only scratching the surface of how good he could become by Senior Year.  Late in game he didn’t give up and kept making plays.  Loved that. 

Tarke looked more comfortable on offense.  Drive to the basket with him as much as possible. 
 

WCC referees and their Lithuania 🇱🇹 son got “3” bail out fouls in his favor. 

I saw a team that likes playing together and gave effort and could become something special come March.  
 

First game across the country after we changed the clocks ⏰ Sunday… they hung in there.  

Didn’t see much of our Brit tonight but he got hammered early on and no call.  Jones hit a really smooth 3 and did what he could against their bigs. St Mary’s is gonna easily dance and they have an abundance of front court depth.  

I know I know..  no moral victories but I thought we showed well overall but so much to fix and gotta hope our front court gets better every week.  

The dunk by May was something.  

PS- They tried like hell to get a second game.  UC Irvine fell through!  
 

 

Edited November 5, 2024 by Bay Area Tiger

[TigerFan54]

Didn’t watch the game and am perplexed by the disparate takes (Bay Area’s optimism, Datres seeing same old/same old). Looking at the box score, I lean toward the latter, especially given the lame FT shooting, per usual, and 4-13 from three. I hated to see Tarke with the ball last year, as it was almost guaranteed he’d throw up a brick from three. Given that he was 0-2, I gather he limited that impulse.

I guess it’s encouraging that May successfully dunked, since it seems he’s missed plenty of those in the past.

Glad to see positive comments about D-Will and Lowery. If each can build on last year’s promising performances, that would be a big boost.

[AtlantaTiger]

7 hours ago, Chris Datres said:

Yayyyyy...another frickin moral victory.  This game's result was not in doubt from the 5:00 mark of the first half on.  For a team that has all this experience, they still do the same dumb crap that will prevent them from getting over the top.  The offense is hot garbage with all this iso crap and hardly any ball movement.  It's amazing to me that we had more assists than SMC did because it seemed all we did was drive into the lane and hope for the best.  Free throws, what a surprise, still terrible.  Do these guys even bother practicing them?  If you're gonna chuck from 3, you better be 75% from the free throw line MINIMUM.  The only improved player I saw out there tonight was Lowery on the offensive end.  It looks like he's worked on a lot of his flaws from last year at that end and his length is going to be very advantageous when getting to the rack.  Samb & Embeya look like projects on the block but in the Skerry mold of defense first and maybe they can luck their way into a couple of dunks.  

Defensively, they figured something out in the 2nd half plus SMC wasn't hitting much from the outside.  I had forgotten about Saxen and when I saw him, I figured he'd tear us apart.  Then they bring in that sequoia off the bench and they should have ruled the paint.  But Jones did a really nice job on them defensively and the guards helped out just enough to be able to get out on the guards.  The fouls, though, geez, gotta stop with those.  Way too much to start the game.  But we do all that work to cut it to 6 and have a ton of momentum and Tejada has to play heroball and throw up some garbage fadeaway 3 that is an airball.  Then we get it to 4 with the ball and Tejada tosses up some silly stuff in the lane, SMC goes down and scores on a putback and we're not getting any closer again.  You played in enough close games last year that you should know how to handle them but yet again, we crap ourselves when the going gets tough against a decent team.  

When you have this much experience, you shouldn't be making the same mistakes you made all of last season.  And after what I saw today, all of those who think we're finishing better than Charleston may want to ask for a do-over.

I came here to type this EXACT response and you beat me to it. Couldn’t agree with your assessment more. 
 

Still shooting ourselves in the foot with horrific shot selections at crucial moments in the game and dreadful FT shooting. 

[mat1992]

8 hours ago, Chris Datres said:

Yayyyyy...another frickin moral victory.  This game's result was not in doubt from the 5:00 mark of the first half on.  For a team that has all this experience, they still do the same dumb crap that will prevent them from getting over the top.  The offense is hot garbage with all this iso crap and hardly any ball movement.  It's amazing to me that we had more assists than SMC did because it seemed all we did was drive into the lane and hope for the best.  Free throws, what a surprise, still terrible.  Do these guys even bother practicing them?  If you're gonna chuck from 3, you better be 75% from the free throw line MINIMUM.  The only improved player I saw out there tonight was Lowery on the offensive end.  It looks like he's worked on a lot of his flaws from last year at that end and his length is going to be very advantageous when getting to the rack.  Samb & Embeya look like projects on the block but in the Skerry mold of defense first and maybe they can luck their way into a couple of dunks.  

Defensively, they figured something out in the 2nd half plus SMC wasn't hitting much from the outside.  I had forgotten about Saxen and when I saw him, I figured he'd tear us apart.  Then they bring in that sequoia off the bench and they should have ruled the paint.  But Jones did a really nice job on them defensively and the guards helped out just enough to be able to get out on the guards.  The fouls, though, geez, gotta stop with those.  Way too much to start the game.  But we do all that work to cut it to 6 and have a ton of momentum and Tejada has to play heroball and throw up some garbage fadeaway 3 that is an airball.  Then we get it to 4 with the ball and Tejada tosses up some silly stuff in the lane, SMC goes down and scores on a putback and we're not getting any closer again.  You played in enough close games last year that you should know how to handle them but yet again, we crap ourselves when the going gets tough against a decent team.  

When you have this much experience, you shouldn't be making the same mistakes you made all of last season.  And after what I saw today, all of those who think we're finishing better than Charleston may want to ask for a do-over.

Take away the iso crap with Tejada and they did move the ball in the second half. Personally I don’t believe in moral victories for this particular team unless you’re facing Duke, but I thought thie Gaels would punish us inside and defend the hell out of us. They actually pushed the pace at times because why not? They had a couple of quick guards and they owned the backboards.

So the only thing I was really upset about were the isos and a few other bad shots from three by Tarke and May late in the game. After a slow start, I thought DWill showed the potential of something we haven’t had in decades and that was an all league guard. 

We have two guys who can score and two others guys who can be very good complementary players. Tarke was also playing the right way before he took this two late threes. We were never really in control so to see us lose another close one to a very good program is not another disappointment to me because of my expectations. Because of their size, I never thought we’d be this close at the end.

[Blounge]

I don’t think anyone really expected us to win that game especially not Vegas putting us at 11.5 underdogs -450 

they covered the spread and got good experience playing a March madness caliber team on the road. 

the freshman need to grow up fast! It’s not often a towson team gets out rebounded and pushed around down low!

[mat1992]

Biggest concern after this game is the free throw shooting. Even though we made a bunch of defensive mistakes early, some of their points came as we had to help on their bigs. 

It wasn’t a great debut for Embeya. I do think facing a 6-10 250 pound center and a 7-1 275 pound big will help him in the long run. He obviously has to get bigger and stronger but he won’t be facing that kind of size this season. Maybe Brzovic who is more of a face up big but seeing that box score yesterday, I assumed he was scoring down low as well.