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Who’s Starting:

Coach Frederick Aura

Practice in October and early November went extremely smoothly. 

Our starting lineup is exactly what we figured it would be before practice began:

PG Adrian Brown, 6-0 senior, 9.5 ppg and 3.5 apg last season

SG Bill Thomas, 6-1 senior, 9.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, and 2.5 apg last season

SF Wayne Burrough, 6-6 sophomore, 10.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg last season

PF Deon Penn, 6-6 junior, JC player last season where he averaged 17.4 ppg and 8.5 rpg

C Melvin Steele, 6-7 senior, 8.8 ppg and 4.8 rpg last season

Primary subs:

PG Mateen Carroll, 6-1 senior, 5.1 ppg and 2.9 apg last season

SG Ryan Taylor, 6-1 junior, 6.7 ppg and 1.6 rpg last season

SF Ross Davis, 6-3 sophomore, 3.2 ppg and 1.6 rpg last season

SF Keiron Stone, 6-7 sophomore, 3.0 ppg and 0.3 rpg last season

PF Jason Vickers, 6-7 junior, 8.1 ppg and 3.5 rpg last season

C Jason Miner, 6-6 junior, 7.1 ppg and 4.0 rpg last season

Walk-ons:

PG Alex Haywood, 6-2 junior, 0.8 ppg and 0.6 apg last season

SF Matt Heard, 6-6 senior, 0.7 ppg and 0.7 rpg last season

Ineligible transfer players:

Dominick Collins, 6-0 sophomore, transferred from Southern California (3.5 ppg and 1.5 apg as freshman)

Donny Flint, 6-9 sophomore, transferred from Butler (13.2 ppg and 9.9 rpg as freshman, Big East Freshman of the Year and Big East All-Conference 1st Team)

While we’re still not a strong team, I think our overall player talent level and depth are gradually improving.  I’m looking forward to the upcoming season.  Hopefully we won’t have any serious injuries this year like we’ve had the past 2 seasons.  This season 5 of our 11 pre-conference games are at home, so that’s a scheduling improvement as well.

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Nov. 14, 2021: Towson Tigers (0-0) @ NC-Central Eagles (0-0)

2nd Assistant Coach Michael Snoddy

Although we jumped out to a small lead, we looked ragged in the first half.  Poor execution and a general lack of cohesiveness.  But we were able to build a 36-28 advantage halftime advantage.  In the locker room Coach Aura challenged the team to step up the level of their play in the 2nd half.

The team responded and opened a solid lead early in the 2nd half.  Some good passing led to a lot of open shots.  We ended up hitting 54% of our FG’s and 48% of our 3’s and we held a 17-10 turnover advantage.  We resoundingly whipped the Eagles 85-65. 

SG Billy Thomas had the best game of his career here.  Hehit 9 of 13 FG’s including 7 of 9 three pointers and finished with 27 points.  PF Deon Penn scored 19 points in his first game for the Tigers and SF Wayne Burrough added 11.

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Nov. 17, 2021: Eastern Michigan Eagles (0-1) @ Towson Tigers (1-0)

Article in the Baltimore Sun sports pages:

Towson and Eastern Michigan in Tight Battle

There were 17 lead changes and 9 ties throughout the first half as neither Towson nor Eastern Michigan went on a run the entire 20 minutes.  The biggest lead in the half was 4 points.  Towson was outshot 44% to 39% but was +3 in rebounds and had a 10-7 turnover advantage.  The Tigers went to the locker room with a slim 34-31 lead.  C Melvin Steele had 8 points and 5 rebounds in the half to lead Towson.

The first 15 minutes of the second half were a repeat of the first half.  The score remained close and the lead shifted back-and-forth.  But then the Tigers opened a bit of a lead and held onto it until the end.  The 77-67 victory made it sound like Towson was more dominant than the Tigers were.  Had Towson not scored 12 more points at the free throw line than the Eagles, the outcome may well have been different.  There were 32 lead changes and 16 ties in the game.  The win improved the Tigers’ record to 2-0.  Towson and NC-Wilimington are the only two teams in the Colonial Athletic Association that have no losses after just two games into the season,

Towson’s C Melvin Steele had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.  SG Billy Thomas scored 11, SF Wayne Burrough added 10, and PF Deon Penn had 9 points and 8 rebounds.  Eastern Michigan’s PG Luther Hill popped in 21 points.

“Eastern Michigan gave us everything we could handle tonight,” said Towson’s head coach Frederick Aura.  He added, “Melvin Steele came up big for us and we got scoring from throughout the lineup.  Our interior game was good.  We had 26 points in the paint and 9 second chance points.  I also was pleased with how we controlled the boards.”  Towson had 40 rebounds to 31 for the Eagles.

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Nov. 21, 2021: Central Florida Knights (2-1) @ Towson Tigers (2-0)

Deon Penn, PF

Things are a lot different here in Maryland that back in Oregon where I’m from.  Old buildings in the Beaver State are maybe a hundred years old.  Here old buildings are 250 years old.  It’s kind of cool to have a lot more African-Americans here than the suburbs of Portland.  On my high school there I was the only black player and on my JC team there were just 2 of us.  12 of the 15 guys on the Tigers are black.  And we have a black head coach and a black 1st assistant coach.

I was really worried about the academics here, but so far I’m doing OK…maybe a B- average overall.  So I’m not sweating it so much now even though the coach Iacona keeps on me to study more.  From what I hear from the other guys, if I get my GPA up over 3.0 they lay off ya.

I’m liking playing for Towson.  I’m still the “new guy on the block” but they’re a good bunch of guys.  We’ve only played 2 games but I’m averaging 14 ppg even though I haven’t shot well yet so hopefully that will improve.  I’m also working to do better on the boards…averaging 6.0 rpg now, but want to be pulling down more.  Coach Fed has complimented me since I’ve averaged 3 apg.  Coach Fed is a cool guy.  He brings in his 2 boys sometimes.  They’re pretty good ball players for being so young.  Coach McDade says Coach Fed, who he calls “Crash”, was a terror on the boards so I hope to pick up some pointers from him.  We also have Donny Flint, a transfer player from Butler who has to sit out the year, practicing with us and he’s a beast on the boards.  Wanting to pick his brain some, but he’s a bit of a hard nut to crack.  As a freshman at Butler he had some good stats, but rumor is that no one there was sorry to see him transfer.  We need to keep him happy here because I’m pretty sure he can give us a huge boost when he’s eligible to play.

Central Florida has 3 guys scoring in double figures.  SG Lamont Jacobson is averaging 17.3 ppg, PG Troy Brewer has scored 14.3 ppg, and PF Trent Ostler is averaging 10.7 ppg.  Ostler and James Sasser, his replacement at PF, together are averaging 17 ppg and over 11 rpg so I’m going to have my hands full trying to shut them down.  The Knights’ SF Michael Cornell has hit for 9.3 ppg.  Their only position not to be producing offensively is at C.  The Knights are the best team we’ve played thus far.  Coach Fed has been on us to come out strong.  We haven’t been able to do that in the games we’ve played.  He says we keep starting slow and when we go up a good team, they’ll bury us.  Matt Heard, a walk on, has this chant in Chinese that he uses to psych us up before games.  It’s weird but cool.  Matt’s a really friendly guy, and from the bench he does a lot of cheering us on.

We roughed up the Knights in the first half with a solid defense and an opportunistic offense.  By the time the buzzer sounded ending the half we were on top 47-28.  SF Wayne Burrough topped our scoring with 12 points.

In the 2nd half, Coach Fed told us to play some lock down defense.  We slowed things down and plugged up the middle.  The effort we put into defense took it out of us offensively so neither team scored much in the 2nd half.  We came away with a decisive 67-52 thumping of Central Florida to improve our record to 3-0.  We totally dominated the boards, 40-24.

SF Wayne Burrough finished with 16 points and 9 rebounds.  C Melvin Steele added 12 points and 8 rebounds.  I shot poorly but scored 8 points.  But I was happy with my defense since the Knights PF’s totaled just 7 points, and I had 3 steals and a block.  Coach Fed gave us all a pat on the back because of our good defense.

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Baltimore Sun

Towson Player Wins Award

The Colonial Athletic Association announced their first weekly awards yesterday.  Towson’s Billy Thomas was named the Association’s Player of the Week.  Thomas, the Tigers’ senior shooting guard, scored 39 points and had 6 assists and 4 steals in Towson’s two wins that past week. He hit 10 of 15 field goals, 8 of 10 three pointers, and was 10 for 10 at the free throw line.  Coach Frederick Aura said, “Billy really deserved this award.  He’s a hard worker who’s improved each year he’s been here.  He also has a tremendous personality that strengthens our team chemistry.”

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Nov. 24, 2021: Colorado State Rams (1-1) @ Towson Tigers (3-0)

Rob Masters, Graduate Assistant Coach

After graduating from Radford University in Virginia and playing ball for the Highlanders, I came to Towson for graduate work to get my MS in Health Sciences.  My graduate studies are going very well here.  And I was excited when Coach Fed brought me on as a graduate assistant coach.  I mainly work with the interior players in practice but also on our zone defenses.   During games, I jot down notes for Coach Fed to consider after the game.

Plan for defensive pressure: Focus on PG Chad Robertson…he’s really a 6-8 SF but is handling the PG chores well for the Rams this season.  Hitting 52% of his FGA’s and 46% of his 3PA’s, averaging 15.5 ppg and 5.5 apg.  When he’s off the court, depending on who’s hot, switch to SF Mel Camby who is averaging 13.5 ppg or PG Aaron Johnson who’s averaging 9.0 ppg while playing 10.5 mpg and is hitting 70% of his FGA’s and 80% of his 3’s.  The Rams have been hitting a high percentage of their shots so far this season, so we’re going to start with M-2-M…and only go to our zone defense if we are unable to shut them down with M-2-M.  Press often to try to wear them down.

Plan for our offense: Since they like a slow-pace, we’ll try speeding things up hoping to throw them off-balance.  Take what they give us on offense, but work the ball inside if we can.  Since they mainly use M-2-M, do a lot of screening to free up shooters.

1st Half:

19:11—Robinson has put up 2 shots, but both tightly guarded by Brown making Robinson 0 for 2.

18 :38—Nice block by Steele on inside shot by Adams.

18:32—Steele scores his 2nd basket making it 4-0.

17:13—We pick off passes on 2 consecutive possessions by the Rams and then force them to throw abll away on their next possession.  Stingy defense.

16:58—Penn hits his 2nd straight jumper making it 8-0.

15:15—Rams’ Camby knocks down his 2nd triple cutting our lead to 8-6.  Change double teaming to him.

14:36—Penn steals pass and makes great outlet pass to Thomas for driving layup making it 12-6.

14:21—5th turnover in just over 5 minutes of play by Colorado State.  Tight defense continuing.

13:51—Unable to get ball inside on Rams’ 3-2 zone, but Davis knocks down a 3 making it 15-6.

13:14—Colorado State breaks our press and scores easily on breakaway making it 17-9.

12:24—Our defense forces 30-second clock violation.

12:06—Subs continuing to shine as Carroll hits a 3 making it 22-9.

11:25—Vickers intercepts pass and Carroll scores again on 14 foot jumper to make it 24-9.

11:07—Taylor picks off a pass and upcourts it to Carroll for easy layin making it 26-9.  Defense has now forced Rams to make 8 turnovers.

6:37—Following a 3 by Brown and a jumper by Thomas, Colorado State forced to call time out as our lead balloons to 35-11.

4:15—Sloppy play on both ends of the floor by us allows Rams to cut lead to 37-21.

Half-time:  We lead 48-31.  Our defense in final 9 minutes was porous.  We hit 54% of our FGA’s and 63% of our 3PA’s throughout the half while limiting Colorado State’s shooting to 38% enn’s 9 points and 4 rebounds.  Camby had 16 for the Rams…need to tighten defense on him and get Burrough driving to force him to foul.

2nd Half:

15:00—Great defense makes it possible for us to forge ahead 54-34.

12:19—Good ball movement inside and outside frees up Davis for nice 3 pointer to make it 61-39.

10:55—Penn fakes out defender for good drive to basket but blows a dunk.

8:28—Another good drive by Penn and he scores this time making it 67-43.

6:47—Beautiful 3 by Vickers making it 74-47.

5:32—Brown hits a long 3 after blocking a shot by the Rams to increase lead to 77-47.

4:31—Coach Fed emptied the bench including playing walk-ons.

Final Score:  Towson-88, Colorado State-52.

Team Stats: We outshoot the Rams 52% to 32% and hit 62% of our 3’s.  We held a 38-32 rebounding advantage and made just 10 turnovers compared to 17 by the Rams.

Top Scorers: PF Deon Penn—17 pts, 10 rebounds; C Melvin Steele-14 pts; PG Adrian Brown-10 pts, 2 stls, 3 blks; PG Mateen Carroll-10 pts.  For Colorado State, SF Mel Camby scored 22 pts but only hit 6 of 15 from the field although knocking down 5 of 6 from beyond the arc.

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Harry Iacona, 3rd Assistant Coach:

All but 2 of our players now have GPA’s over 3.0.  We have put Deon Penn on a study table and have gotten a tutor for Donny Flint.

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Nov. 28, 2021: Towson Tigers (4-0) @ North Dakota Fighting Hawks (1-3)

Jason Vickers, PF

The University of North Dakota’s original nickname was the Flickertails, but it was changed to the “Sioux” in 1930, then the “Fighting Sioux”, and then after years of controversy it became the “Fighting Hawks” in 2015.

Some would consider going to Grand Forks, ND in the winter simply foolhardy.  We’re freezing our tails off, so we’d better win or I’ll be concurring about it being foolhardy.

Deon Penn (who is starting as usual at PF) needs to keep Ted Marlow in check since he leads North Dakota in scoring with 15.3 ppg.  Tonight Mateen Carroll is starting at PG for us rather than Adrian Brown.  Mateen has been shooting extremely well so Coach Fed decided he’d earned a start.  Mateen is also good at feeding out assists.

Mateen’s start was short-lived. He picked up 2 fouls in the first 3 minutes and had to sit.  It looked like the cold weather had us frozen in the first 6 minutes of the game.  We fell behind 17-6 and we had 6 turnovers and had been called for 5 fouls.  We got our offense going but we simply had no defense and fell behind by as much as 18 points and trailed 50-38 at the break.  The refs sent the Fighting Hawks to the line 23 times compared to just 10 times that we got to shoot foul shots.  Coach Fed tore us up in the locker room because of our 10 turnovers.  PG Adrian Brown scored 9 points and I had 7 to lead our offense.  North Dakota’s C Terry Akins dropped in 12 points.

Not a lot to say about the 2nd half.  We made some runs, cutting the lead to under 10 (as close as 7), but then the Fighting Hawks would roar back to take a solid double-digit lead (as much as 18 points).  We ended up losing 89-80.  We just never were in this game.  We hit 51% of our shots, but they knocked down 53% of theirs.  We turned the ball over 22 times.

PG Adrian Brown had 14 points while PF Deon Penn, SF Wayne Burrough, and SG Billy Thomas each had 11 points.  Penn also had 10 rebounds.  I finished with 9 points as did C Melvin Steele.

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Dec. 1, 2021: Towson Tigers (4-1) @ Wagner Seahawks (2-3)

Tiger Blog

After starting the season with 4 straight wins, a subpar performance brought Towson’s men’s basketball team back to earth earlier this week in their loss at North Dakota.  Last night in the middle of a 3-game road trip they went up against the Wagner Seahawks on Staten Island, New York.  Adrian Brown was back in the starting lineup at PG following Coach Fed’s failed experiment in starting Mateen Carroll in their last game.  Carroll has played well coming off the bench but was ineffective as a starter.

Rumors abound that Wagner is torn by internal dissension that Brian Mills, their head coach, has been unable to control.  The team began the season with two close wins at home but had lost their 3 subsequent games and has yet to score 70 points in any of their games.  Towson’s defense, which has been sound, fell apart in their last game so a test would be to continue to keep the Seahawks’ scoring low. 

The Tigers gradually pulled away from Wagner in the first half.  With 8:47 remaining before the intermission, Towson got their first double-digit lead at 27-16.  The Tigers players were a little quicker.  Wagner, in attempting to counteract that, got called for some dumb holding fouls.  As Towson harassed Wagner defensively, the Seahawks had several passes picked off and also threw the ball away repeatedly.  Towson expanded their lead to 18 before settling for a 47-34 halftime advantage.  Both teams hit over 50% of their shots in the half.  But the Tigers held a 14-9 rebounding advantage and made just 6 turnovers compared to 14 by the Seahawks.  PF Deon Penn poured in 15 points in the half.

The Tigers continued to take their measure of Wagner in the 2nd half and went ahead 60-39 with 16:21 to play.  Wagner tried to come back late but the difference was just too great.  Towson left with an 88-78 victory.  Each team hit 51% of their FG attempts.  Towson controlled the boards 31-21 and also held an 18-13 turnover advantage.

PF Deon Penn scored 19 points, C Melvin Steele had 17, SF Wayne Burrough finished with 15, and SG Billy Thomas hit for 10.

After the game Coach Aura said, “I was very pleased with our offense, but we let up defensively in the 2nd half and gave the Seahawks just too many easy baskets.”

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Dec. 5, 2021: Towson Tigers (5-1) @ Georgia Southern Eagles (2-3)

Matt Heard, walkon SF:

We moved from the cold of North Dakota and New York to the much warmer clime of Georgia.  We flew from Baltimore to Savannah via Atlanta.  We then took a bus from Savannah to the Georgia Southern campus in Statesboro.  Coach Fed has us on a virtual lockdown along with strict personal safety measures for all of us since Covid19 cases in Georgia have spiked recently due to lax preventative measures here.  He also paid for extra cleaning measures in our locker room at Hanner Fieldhouse and at the hotel we’re using.  He scheduled us for the earliest flight we could take the morning after our game.

Georgia Southern has had home games the entire season thus far.  SG Otis Lynch is averaging 15.4 ppg for the Eagles.  Their primary offensive set is the high post and defensively they most often play man-to-man.   Coach Fed wants us setting a lot of good picks to free up some clear shots.  He also wants some good ball movement, being careful to avoid turnovers.  We’ve been pressing a lot lately but he got on us since we’ve given up some easy baskets on blown coverage.

We scored the first 6 points in the game but then went ice-cold.  Georgia Southern ran off 14 straight points.  We simply didn’t have it in the first half, hitting just 28% of our shots, none of our 3’s, less than half of our foul shots. And were out-rebounded 23-18.  The Eagles held a big 37-21 lead when the buzzer sounded.  PF Deon Penn scored 6 points but also picked up 3 fouls for us.  We held Otis Lynch scoreless but SF Jason Johnson hit for 10 points for Georgia Southern.

We stumbled along throughout most of the 2nd half, but finally made a run late and cut the score to 60-55 when SG Billy Thomas sunk a 3 with 38 seconds to go.  I was screaming from the bench since I thought we might pull of a big comeback win.  We fouled and they made one of two to increase their lead to 6.  We missed another 3 but C Melvin Steele tipped in a rebound to get us within 4 points but there were only 6 seconds left.  We fouled again.  The Eagles sank both free throws along with our comeback attempt.  We lost 63-57.

We only raised our shooting percentage to 36% but we hit just as many FG’s and one more 3 than did Georgia Southern.  But the Eagles scored 7 more points at the free throw line which sealed our loss.

PF Deon Penn finished with 14 points with SF Wayne Burrough adding 12.  C Melvin Steele scored 8 but had 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.  We kept the Eagles’ PG Otis Lynch from scoring the entire game, but their bench outscored ours 34-12.

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Fracas

Coach Frederick Aura

After the game with Georgia Southern and returning to the team’s hotel, Adrian Brown was hungry and decided to take walk to a nearby drive-in for a hamburger and shake.  His teammates said they were beat and didn’t want to go.  After eating there he walked back toward the hotel.  Within a block of the hotel, he noticed some sort of disturbance in the street near him.  He began to hurry the final two blocks.  The police had been called and arrived on scene.  Noticing Adrian jogging down the sidewalk, they hollered to stop.  Adrian said he thought they were calling to the perpetrators of the disturbance and not him.  So he decided to keep running to get into the safety of the nearby hotel as quickly as possible. But another police car squealed to a stop and a burly police officer tackled and jumped on top of him.  Other police officers came to assist as Adrian struggled to get free from the painful position in which he was being held.  His pleas were muffled by his face being pushed onto the sidewalk and an officer’s body on top of him. 

At that moment, I came out of the hotel planning to go for a short walk to rid myself of the pent up energy and frustration still within me from the game and our loss.  I noticed the wrestling on the ground a half-block away.  At first I turned to go back into the hotel so as to not get involved in a police action, but then took a second look and was shocked when I realized it was Adrian who was being held down by the police.  I then ran toward the scene to try to help resolve Adrian’s problem, hollering for the police to stop.  Another police officer intervened as I neared and roughly pushed me up against a building ordering me to stay out of it. 

While being held down with pressure holds, Adrian was handcuffed on the ground.  He was yanked up and pulled against his will by 3 officers toward a police vehicle and pushed into roughly into it.  He kept repeating, “What are f—are you doing?  I didn’t do anything!”  I was finally able to get across to the police that I was the coach for Adrian who was a college basketball player.  Meanwhile other police officers had dealt with the original disturbance and arrested the people involved, whose descriptions were entirely different than Adrian’s, from how they were dressed to their skin color.  But none-the-less, Adrian was taken to the police department since the police apparently still believed he was a party to the disturbance. 

I quickly returned to the hotel and rounded up Omar McDade, my first assistant coach.  Together we hurried to the police station.  Three hours later, following extensive questioning of all plus Omar’s and my intervention on behalf of Adrian, he was finally cleared and released without as much as an apology from the police.  He sustained extensive scrapes and bruising and a lot of body soreness due to his struggles on the ground.  He will undergo a thorough medical exam upon our return to Towson.  Since it’s uncertain if he sustained any serious injury, we aren’t sure if he will be able to play in our next game. 

Even though he was exhausted, Adrian was angry and complaining about police profiling.  I also was incensed by what the police had done and how they had acted.  I called Perry Winkle, our AD, to let him know what happened and tell him I planned to file a complaint.  He told me to drop it and just get the team the hell out of there and back to Towson. My arguments with Perry didn’t prevail.  So I did what he said but am concerned that Adrian is likely to feel I let him down and wasn’t supportive.

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Dec. 8, 2021: Wyoming Cowboys (4-1) @ Towson Tigers (5-2)

PG Adrian Brown

Damn, I’m still sore from the beatin’ the police put on me.  Luckily nothing broken and I’m still alive.  Coach Fed said I should sit this game out and give my body a chance to get back to 100%.  But there was no way I was going to miss a game.  I think that would be like letting giving in to the authorities who unjustly and forcefully mistakenly confined me.  Am I bitter?  Hell yes I am.  My intent tonight is to put aside my anger and pain and put a different kind of hurtin’ on the Wyoming Cowboys.

Both Wyoming and we have played North Dakota this season.  The Cowboys won at home by 13 and we lost on the road by 9.  So Wyoming is favored to whip us, but I’m confident that we will be up to the challenge.  Most of Wyoming’s offense has come from their guards who all are hitting a high percentage of their shots.  We’re going to make them work hard to try to wear them down and keep them from burning us.  Coach Fed said don’t worry about scoring but wants me and Mateen focusing on defense and setting up our teammates on offense.

We fell behind 6-0.  It took us 2-1/2 minutes to score.  We struggled to catch up and finally did when I knocked down a 3 to make the score 15-15 with 13 minutes left in the half.  We got our first lead 30 seconds later.  The Cowboys then jumped back ahead by 6 and we were back in catch-up mode.  With 5 minutes to go we tied Wyoming again at 37-37.  The half ended with us trailing 42-41.  But I thought we’d outplayed the Cowboys except that the refs had put the Cowboys on the line 9 more times where they’d scored 6 more points than us.  PF Deon Penn was on fire and scored 15 in the half.

The lead shifted back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.  We then took a small lead and very gradually edged further ahead as our defense dug in and we began to control the boards.   With 4:45 to go we were up 69-58.  We went on to cut down the Cowboys 82-65.  We hit 55% of our shots compared to their 39% shooting. 

PF Deon Penn and I both scored 16 points…and Deon also had 11 rebounds even though he picked up 4 fouls and only played 19 minutes.  A helluva impressive performance!  SF Wayne Burrough dropped in 14 points and C Jason Minor came off the bench to score 12.  Coach Fed patted us on the back for keeping Wyoming’s guards in check.  After the game I felt like I’d been run over by an 18-wheeler but I think I’ll be feeling good by the time we play our next game.

Edited by PointGuard

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Aftermath

Coach Frederick Aura

The injustice that Adrian Brown sustained continued to eat at me, and I knew that Adrian’s mind was in a turmoil.  Therefore I contacted Bryce Zion, a civil rights attorney, and have paid his up-front fees.  He’s now begun collecting evidence and is working with Adrian to determine if there is a case that can be pursued against the police and city for the treatment inflicted upon him.  A GoFundMe page has been established to take care of future legal fees for Adrian since he has no money to handle what could be a costly endeavor.  Zion forthrightly advised that he will do his best but that success is a long-shot.  He also said that the wheels of justice grind along very slowly so not expect a quick resolution.

Because of what happened, Adrian and a few of his teammates have become active in a local civil rights organization.  I’m supportive of what they’re doing, and they’ve promised that it won’t cut into their focus on basketball and their education.  It’s important that young adults take up the mantle for continuing to right historic and persistent wrongs in our society.

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Dec. 12, 2021: Towson Tigers (6-2) @ Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (5-1)

Jason Miner, C

This is my 3rd season playing for Towson.  It’s been a bumpy road but one I’m glad I chose to come here.  I played in every game as a freshman…coming off the bench to sub at power forward.  Then last season I started almost every game at PF, doubling my minutes played.  Then this fall, Coach Fed said he needed me to fill a new role.  He challenged me to switch positions from PF to C.  He said that due to the way I’d developed, he was sure that I could excel.  Since we already has a starting C in Melvin Steele, he was upfront with me that my role would be to come off the bench, but to do so bringing new energy and my improved skills to help lift the team.  I knew that Deon Penn had the talent to be a great PF so understood that Deon would take over as the starting PF.  Coach Fed said that with Melvin and I spelling each other at C, we'd provide solid interior strength for our team.  While of course I’d prefer to be a starter, I accepted Coach Fed’s challenge and have come off the bench this season in every game.  I’ve been averaging about 17 mpg.  I think that the duo of Melvin and me at C has yielded positive results…a combined 18 ppg, 11 rpg and 3 apg.

The Lumberjacks are 5-0 at home.  That sucks!  SG Ed Johnson is averaging 18.0 ppg.  That sucks also.  But we as a team are focused on pulling off a road win. 

We started strong, but then the Lumberjacks hit a couple 3’s and the full-house crowd then took us out of our game.  We fell behind by as much as 11 points.  We mounted a big run late in the half and took a 46-44 lead to the locker room.  We outshot Stephen F. Austin 60% to 47% but they hit 6 of 12 from beyond the arc.  SF Wayne Burrough was our leading scorer with 9 points.  We held the Lumberjacks’ SG Ed Johnson to 5 points but their PG Josh Brown poured in 14 points.

We held a razor-thin lead throughout much of the 2nd half but then seemed to wear down the Lumberjacks and opened an 11 point lead with 4-1/2 minutes remaining.  We were cruising.  But then we fell apart, the home crowd really got into it, and with 2 minutes left our lead was down to 74-72.  A minute later we led by just a single point 75-74.  Then with 39 seconds on the clock the Lumberjacks tied the game.  The crowd was going crazy rocking the place.  After a foul that Coach Fed loudly protested, SFA sunk both free throws with 16 seconds to go and we trailed by 2.  We were unable to successfully run the play Coach Fed called and had to force up our final shot which was off the mark.  The result was a 77-75 loss.  Very disappointing loss since we gave the game away in the final 4 minutes.  While we dominated the boards 39-28, we had 18 turnovers to just 8 by Stephen F. Austin.

PF Deon Penn had 16 points and 9 rebounds, SF Wayne Burrough and I each scored 11, and SG Ryan Taylor scored 10.  PG Josh Brown pumped in 20 points for Stephen F. Austin.

I didn’t sleep well after this loss.  I’m guessing others on the team didn’t either.  At breakfast in the morning, guys were still down.  Coach Fed told us to put it behind us and focus on preparing for our next game.  Before boarding the plane, he pranked Coach Snoddy which cracked us all up and broke the tension.

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Dec 19, 2021: Towson Tigers (6-3) @ Alcorn State Braves (4-4)

Rob Masters, Graduate Assistant Coach

Defensive Strategy: Alcorn State’s starting guards, Cory Scott and Jonathan Crooks, have combined to average 26 ppg.  They and the guards coming off the bench all hit a high percentage of their outside shots.  We’re going to employ a man-to-man offense to see if we can keep them from unloading on us from the perimeter.  But we’ll intersperse a zone occasionally to keep them off balance. We’re also going to press a lot to try to wear down their guards.  PF Matt Linney has been a beast on the boards so we need to try to box him out.

Offensive Strategy: We match up well against the Braves’ big men, so we’re going to try to work the ball inside as much as possible.  We’re hoping to jump on them early to make them play catch-up ball.  We’re going to try to speed up our offense to possibly reduce turnovers.  

1st Half:

18:23—PF Deon Penn called for his 2nd foul on a cheap foul…sending him to the bench.

16:49—2nd foul on PG Adrian Brown and 5th team foul on us.  Alcorn State ahead 12-2.  No fouls called against the Braves.  Crowd noise intense.

15:44—2nd foul on PF Jason Vickers and our 6th team foul.  Coach Fed working refs.

14:55—First foul called against Alcorn State.

12:30—Mini-run gets us to within 3 points.

9:30—Porous defense and recurring turnovers by us allow the Braves to go ahead 30-15.

Halftime score 47-36 in favor of Alcorn State.  Coach Fed roasts the team in the locker room for their half-assed defense that let Acorn State hit 59% of their FG’s and 86% of their 3’s.  He also hollers about the 8 turnovers we made.  PF Deon Penn only played 7 minutes but scored 8 points.

2nd Half:

17:15—Our 4th turnover of the half.  The Braves have scored 8 points to our none and we trail by 19. Coach Fed sits our guards, Adrian Brown and Billy Thomas.

11:12—We scrappily reduce the deficit to 10 points.

9:30—The Braves continue to light it up from 3-point land to go ahead 70-55.

4:31—C Jason Miner buries a 3 to get us to within 7 at 76-69.

2:29—Melvin Steele sinks 2 free throws to make it 76-72.

Final Score: Alcorn State-84, Towson-78.

We fought hard at the end but the Braves hit a 3 and then made free throws when we were forced to foul in the waning moments of the game.

Alcorn State sank 57% of their shots including 69% of their 3’s and made 6 more points at the free throw line than we did.  The Braves were on fire offensively throughout the entire game.

Top Scorers:  C Jason Miner-22 points plus 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals (the best game of his career); PF Deon Penn-14 points; C Melvin Steele-10 points.

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WTOW Sports Radio

Interview of Coach Frederick Aura (FA) by sports talk announcer Jim Raymond (JR)

JR: Welcome Coach.  I imagine its nice to get your team back to Towson.

FA: Thanks, Jim.  Yeah, losing both of our road games this past trip was tough. Particularly so since both losses weren’t by many points.  One we blew at the end and the other we were closing at the end but just had too many points to make up to quite make it.

JR: You game this week against George Washington is your final tune-up before conference play begins.  Do you think your team is ready.

FA: I’m always want us to be further along, but overall the guys have played pretty well.  Even though we lost those last 2 games, we were still very competitive and road games are always tough.  I think we’re ready to compete in CAA play.  But I’m sure it’s going to be a competitive conference just as it was last season. Nobody will get though it unblemished.  I think the main thing is for us to find a way to win on the road with some regularity.  We’ve lost 4 of our 6 road games in pre-conference play, but we’ve been in each one…losing by 2, 4, 6 and 9 points.  So with just a few breaks or a few less mistakes, we’d be 3-3 or 4-2 on the road now.  We just need to figure out how to get over the hump better.  I’m confident though…our guys are fighters.  One thing that has really be surprising to me is that Adrian Brown, Billy Thomas, Mateen Carroll, and Ross Davis are all hitting well over 50% of their 3’s.  And Wayn Burrough hasn’t been as successful from out there, he’s got the form to get up there also.  When you look at that stat you might say why not have them shoot more from outside the arc, but I think its best we take the open shots we’re given rather than forcing up shots.

JR: Jason Miner had quite a game against Alcorn State.  He seems to be making a bid to start.

FA: Yeah, I’ve really be impressed how he’s developed.  We had him change positions this season and it took a while for him to made the adjustment.  But he’s scored in double figures the last 3 games.  And we’ve been working closely with him on positioning to pull down rebounds.  His grabbing 9 in the last game shows that he’s paying attention and give me a lot of faith in how he’s going to do playing center.  With regard to starting, Jason gives us a boost coming off the bench and he’s getting nearly the same minutes that starter Melvin Steele is.  Both are playing well.  With Jason coming on strong means there is no let down when Melvin comes out for a breather or gets into foul trouble.

JR: Others notice too since he was named the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week.

FA: Right…and it was well-deserved.  Jason was thrilled to receive the award and his teammates all congratulated him.  Billy Thomas told Jason that he expects him to get the award every week from now on.

JR: Any other surprises for you with the team this year so far?

FA: Lots of them.  Actually, while not totally surprised, I’m really pleased to have subs coming in at each position that are doing well.  I like a deep bench and we truly have it this season.

JR: Unlike your first 2 seasons at Towson, everyone on the team is healthy, right?

FA: I don’t want to jinx things so I’ll just say I’m happy with how things have gone thus far.

JR: Good luck with GW, Coach.

FA: Thanks, Jim.  The Colonials have played well this year, so they’ll be tough.  But our guys want to keep our home record unblemished, so I expect we’ll be out there battling.

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Dec. 26, 2021: George Washington Colonials (8-2) @ Towson Tigers (6-4)

Zaniya Richardson

Hi.  My first time attending a basketball game at Towson.  I went to high school with Keirson Stone.  We went out a few times but really are just good friends.  I’m attending Yale and Keiron and I communicate regularly via social media.  He’s been down because he’s not playing much, so I figured since I’m on Christmas break that I would come to the game and then spend some time with him to buoy his spirits.

I don’t get why he’s not playing a lot. He was the star player for our high school team.  I like basketball and my brother played but wasn’t all that good.  But I haven’t been to a basketball game since going to games while at Kent Island High school here in Maryland.  I just don’t have the time at Yale.

Keiron looked good during warmups.  The people sitting next to me say George Washington has been playing really well including beating Gonzaga.  Since GW isn’t located too far from here there seem to be a lot of their fans at the game.

Keiron told me there was no way he would be starting but when his coach finally subbed out all the starters with the Tigers ahead 11-8, Keiron was left on the bench.  I felt like doing a continuous “We Want Keiron!” chant, but figured one person doing that wouldn’t even be heard.  After 10 minutes of play, Towson led 17-9, but neither the starter or sub at SF had done anything.  Put in Keiron!!!  Finally with about 9 minutes left in the half, the sub at SF (Davis is his name) picked up a 2nd foul.  And in came Keiron.  Damn! Pass the ball to Keiron.  He grabbed an offensive rebound and made a nice pass and Towson scored.  Good going!  Towson up 24-16.  Then after a media time out with 7-1/2 minutes left in the half, Keiron’s coach put the starter back in the game.  Keiron didn’t even get to play a full 2 minutes.  How can a guy show how good he is in that short time?  He remained on the bench until he was brought back in to spell the starting SF (Burrough) with 2:43 to go and the Tigers ahead 33-25.  With a minute to go Keiron made a slick pass that resulted in a basket for Towson putting them ahead 36-26.  Oops!  Bad pass by Keiron with 7 seconds remaining.  The half ended with Towson on top 36-29.  Keiron hadn’t scored by had a rebound and an assist.  Not bad for so little playing time. 

The Colonials quickly reduced the lead to just 3 points at the beginning of the 2nd half.  Bring in Keiron!  You need his defense!  With 11 minutes to go and Towson ahead 49-40 the coach again brings in another sub for the starter at SF and leaves Keiron sitting.  I can see why he’s getting upset.  Keiron is finally brought back into the game with 8-1/2 minutes to play with the Tigers holding a 57-43 lead.  Keiron picked off a pass and threw a beautiful upcourt pass to Towson’s PG (Carroll) for an uncontested layin for a 20 point lead.  Fantastic!  Argh, Keiron missed a shot inside.  After Keiron had played just over 4 minutes, he was taken out of the game.  The game finally ended with Towson drubbing the Colonials 75-56. 

Keiron didn’t score but had a rebound, 2 assists and a steal.  The only player for Towson to score in double figures was PF Deon Penn who had 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Keiron and I went out and got something to eat after the game.  I praised his play and told him the only reason he didn’t score was because he only got one shot.  He said that 9 minutes of court time was a lot more than he normally gets (actually it’s the most he’s ever gotten) but he wanted more.  He doesn’t think the coaches give him any respect and that they have their “favorites” and he’s not one of those.  He said he works hard in practice but the coaches just don’t pay enough attention to him.  He’s got a 4.0 GPA, so I said its obvious that he should have gone to Yale where I’m certain he would be getting plenty of playing time.  He did an online check of Yale’s stats and said, “Yeah, their SF’s haven’t done much for the team.”  He said he doubts that Yale takes many transfer players, though.

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Tiger Blog

The Towson Tigers finished their pre-conference schedule with a 7-4 record.  Not bad.  And they have the 60th best RPI in the nation.  That’s good, but seems rather high given that none of their pre-conference opponents were really top-flight teams.  Northeastern is the only other Colonial Athletic Association team with as good a record.

Here’s how each CAA team did in pre-conference play:

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Individual leaders on the Towson Tigers roster:

Scoring: PF Deon Penn—14.6 ppg, SF Wayne Burrough—10.5 ppg, C Melvin Steele—9.8 ppg, SG Billy Thomas—9.1 ppg, C Jason Minor—8.7 ppg, PG Adrian Brown—7.3 ppg.

Rebounds: PF Deon Penn—7.5 rpg, C Melvin Steele—6.8 rpg, SF Wayne Burrough—6.0 rpg, C Jason Miner—4.3 rpg.

Assists: PG Adrian Brown—3.5 apg, SG Billy Thomas—3.5 apg, PG Mateen Carroll—2.8 apg, SG Ryan Taylor—1.6 apg.

C Melvin Steele has both the most steals (1.2 spg) and blocks (1.5 bpg).

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Jan. 2, 2022: Drexel Dragons (4-7, 0-0) @ Towson Tigers (7-4, 0-0)

Danielle and Louis Broadmore

Louis: Danni and I don’t get out much now that we have a baby.  But she knows I love basketball and so she’s agreed to our coming to some of Towson’s home games.  I keep hoping that the Tigers will come on strong, win the CAA championship and get through at least a couple rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  OK, that’s been a dream with little chance that it will become reality.  While I prefer close games that Towson pulls out at the end, Danni likes games where Towson leads by 10-20 points throughout the entire game.  I like Billy Thomas and Melvin Steele and am growing to like Deon Penn.  She likes…well, I’ll let her tell you that.

Danielle: Sticks (that’s what I call Louis since I met him when he was the drummer for a rock band; his parents call him Louie, but he doesn’t really like others calling him that) drags me to these games fairly often.  Actually it’s not that I don’t like coming to the games.  I do.  But it means having to get a baby sitter and I don’t like leaving little Emma with a baby sitter.  It’s good for us to get out occasionally though.  Sticks says I’m supposed to tell you who I like.  On the team I like Wayne Burrough the most, but my real favorites at these games are the cheer squad, the dance team, and of course, Doc the Tiger.  I don’t keep track of statistics or even how various players are doing or the opponents, so I’ll leave any of that up to Sticks.

Louis: When a game gets down to the final 4 minutes on the clock, Danielle always begins gathering everything up and moves to the edge of her seat since she always feels like we will be able to get out of here in 4 minutes and get back to Emma.  Of course, she forgets that the final minutes of a basketball game are consumed by a bunch of time outs that make the 4 minutes take about 4 times as long to play out. 

This game should be a slam dunk for the Tigers tonight.  Drexel hasn’t played very well thus far.  They’ve only won 1 of their 7 away games.  They gave up over 90 points in each of their last two games.  Their offense has been extremely inconsistent.  The past two years they’ve won just 11 and 12 games each season, and I don’t think they are any stronger this season.  They have two players averaging in double figures: SG Kareem Bickerstaff at 12.0 ppg and SF Shawn King at 11.7 ppg.  I think the Tigers’ interior players are a lot stronger and should dominate.  I’m guessing this will be a game Danni will like. 

Game comments:

Louis: The Dragons hit a couple nice buckets but otherwise the Tigers defense looks good forcing 5 turnovers enroute to a 12-5 opening lead.  And Steele scored 6 of those points. 

Danielle: Doc the Tiger is so funny. I love watching him cavort and also how he plays with the fans.  Now this is a game!  23-11 midway through the half.  Sticks…your man Melvin Steele is hot tonight. 9 points already.

Louis: Damn!  The Tigers must have felt they had this in the bag.  Now they can’t hit a shot and Drexel’s scored 15 unanswered points to lead 26-23 with 6 minutes to go.

Danielle: What’s wrong with Towson?  They’re on their own court and don’t seem comfortable at all. Missing shots from everywhere on the court.  I’m getting real nervous.

Louis: This isn’t good.  We’re trailing 34-32 at the end of the half.  And we only hit 32% of our shots. If it weren’t for our 11-2 turnover advantage, we’d be buried.  PF Deon Penn shot horribly but put up a lot of shots so he was able to score 13 points.  And C Melvin Steele has 9 points.  But all the perimeter players have been nearly invisible.  And Drexel is controlling the boards.  What the hell?  Coach Aura better get his guys turned around.

Danielle: Great performance by the dance team during the halftime intermission!

Louis: The Dragons really started out with a slew of turnovers.  Unfortunately, the Tigers still aren’t shooting well.  Ugly game.  We trail 42-37 with 14 minutes to go.

Danielle: Kill the refs!  They’re calling too many fouls on the Tigers!  We’re still behind by 49-46 with just 10 minutes left.

Louis: Drexel is killing us with their 3’s.  We keep getting within 1 or 2 points but the Dragons come right back and knock down a 3.  Man, this is killing me.  Towson trails 68-65 with 2 minutes to go.  Drexel has hit 11 of 25 from 3-point land and the Tigers have hit just 3 of 17 from beyond the arc.

Danielle:  What a bummer!  The Tigers’ shooting was just horrible and they finally had to foul intentionally and ended up losing 72-65.  We should have stayed home with Emma…wouldn’t have had to get a baby sitter.

Louis:  Drexel outshot Towson 48% to 34% and from 3 point distance 42% to 16%.  And the Tigers were out-rebounded 42-29.  They played lousy tonight.   PF Deon Penn scored 20, C Melvin Steele had 16 and PF Jason Vickers added 9.  Otherwise no other Towson players scored more than 5 points.  The four guards hit 3 of 17 of their FG attempts.  Kind of makes me not want to go to any more games.  If they don’t start playing better, this is going to be a long season.  Towson’s the only CAA team to lose on their home court tonight.

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Jan. 5, 2022: Towson Tigers (7-5, 0-1) @ Hofstra Pride (4-8, 0-1)

Michael Snoddy, 2nd Assistant (Practice) Coach

Coach Aura and I worked the hell out of the team after the embarrassing loss earlier this week.  The guys needed a swift kick in the butt.  I hope it makes a difference tonight.  Our guards aren’t as bad as they played in the last game, but they really need to step up the level of their effort and their focus.  Our big guys aren’t going to be able to carry the entire load.

The Pride have a 5-game losing streak.  We need to make sure they continue that tonight.

PF Deon Penn again picked up 2 quick fouls.  This is becoming a problem for him.  SG Billy Thomas hit a nice jumper and then a beautiful 3 to give us a 7-5 lead which was a good sign that maybe our outside shooting would be OK.  Thomas continued to play well but the rest of the team wasn’t shooting well.  That together with a bunch of turnovers caused us to gradually slip behind Hofstra.  We finished the half trailing 40-33.  12 turnovers by us to just 5 by the Pride.  Hofstra also was sent to the line 11 more times where they scored 7 more points than did we.  SG Billy Thomas 6 of 8 FG’s including 3 of 5 threes and afscored 19 points in the half.  We need to get the rest of the team supporting him in the 2nd half. 

The turnover bug continued to bite us in the 2nd half.  We narrowed the gap early in the 2nd half, but then slowly slipped into oblivion and completely fell apart late in the game to sustain an 85-67 drubbing at the hands of Hofstra.  Another lackluster performance.  24 turnovers!

SG Billy Thomas was our only player to score in double figures.  He finished with 22 points.

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Jan. 9, 2022: Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens (0-13, 0-2) @ Towson Tigers (7-6, 0-2)

Omar McDade, 1st Assistant Coach

Not much “fight” to these Blue Hens so far this season.  Time to dig out way out of the basement in the conference and start clawing our way back up the pack.  We’re starting Mateen Carroll at PG in place of Adrian Brown.  Adrian hasn’t been on the top of his game the past 5 games.  Mateen has been playing a little better and is hitting a much higher percentage of his FG attempts and also dishing out assists at a slightly higher rate.  Additionally, Jason Vickers will start at SF in place of Burrough.  Wayne’s last 4 games have been relatively weak  Jason has been primarily subbing at PF, but can handle the 3 position as well.  We considered making some other switches in the starting lineup to try to shake up the team, but during our “practices from hell” the past few days, our guys seemed to get the message.  We’ll see if they can play with a renewed enthusiasm tonight.

Delaware hit 3 quick shots to go up 7-0 in the first 70 seconds of the game.  We fell behind by 13 after 6 minutes of play before scoring 7 unanswered points in the next minute to get back into the game.  We got within 3 a couple times but ended the half trailing 37-29.  We’re still not aggressive enough.  PF Deon Penn scored 10 to lead us offensively.  But we let Delaware knock down 50% of their shots.  Defense has to buckle down.

We scored the first 6 points in the 2nd half to pull with a single point and then with 15:56 left Wayne Burrough drilled a 3 that put us ahead 41-39 for our first lead of the game.  We expanded our lead to 8 in the next couple of minutes but then our offense stalled.  But our defense was rock solid.  SF Ross Davis and PG Mateen Carroll hit back-to-back 3’s to put us up 55-42 with 9-1/2 minutes left.  PG Adrian Brown hit a 3 with 6:40 to go to put us ahead by 20 at 64-44.  We went on to record a decisive 77-60 victory.  Great 2nd half in which we outscored the FIghtin’ Blue Hens 48-23.  We hit 13 of 24 of our 3-point attempts.

PF Deon Penn scored 24, PG Adrian Brown came on strong in the 2nd half to finish with 20 points. SG Billy Thomas had 10 assists.

Gotta hope the spark we had in the 2nd half carries over to our next game.  The win moved us up into a 4-way tie for 5th place.  Charleston, Northeastern, and NC-Wilmington sit atop the CAA with perfect 3-0 records.

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Jan. 12, 2022: Towson Tigers (8-6, 1-2) @ Elon Phoenix (3-11, 0-3)

Alex Haywood, walkon PG

I continue to practice but not play.  But I’m not complaining.  I get to go on all these good trips like Elon, NC and help keep the bench warm.  Well now it isn’t a bench since we each get our own chair.

Good start as we leapt ahead 7-0 and then forced 5 turnovers in first 6 minutes to take a 14-4 lead.  Even though we got error-prone and made a bunch of our own turnovers we pulled ahead 26-11 with 6 minutes remaining in the half. Although we made 9 turnovers in the half, Elon continued their sloppy play finishing with 14 first-half turnovers.  Our defense also held the Phoenix shooting to 24% whereas we popped in 50% of our shots.  The half ended with us on top 39-15.  PF Jason Vickers came in off the bench to score 10 points.  PG Mateen Carroll had 4 steals.

We went ahead 45-17 in the early part of the 2nd half.  But then a brawl broke out in the stands and the game was delayed as authorities tried to break it up and restore order.  Our momentum was broken and Elon narrowed the gap to 54-39 with 9-1/2 minutes to go.  We regained our control of the game from thereon and won easily 73-56.  We held a 36-28 rebounding advantage, a 50% to 34% shooting advantage, and a 21-16 turnover advantage.

SF Wayne Burrough scored 15 to go along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists, PF Jason Vickers had 11 points, and C Melvin Steele added 10 points.

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Two Weeks To Go

Omar McDade, 1st Assistant (Recruiting) Coach

I’m on pins and needles.  Two weeks to go before SAT test scores are announced.  We have 3 very highly ranked recruits that have us as their highest school they are interested in.  All 3 are very unlikely to get a high enough SAT score though.  I'm just hoping maybe one of them guessed well on the test.  We’ve not offered a scholarship to any of the 3 but will if any of them eke by with a satisfactory SAT.  If none of those 3 qualify, we still have some recruits we’ve worked longer and harder on who are just a little lower rated.  But it sure would be great if we can land one of the 3 top-flyers.

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Jan. 16, 2022: James Madison Dukes (5-10, 2-2) @ Towson Tigers (9-6, 2-2)

Dikeke Portando, Student Band Director

I’m in graduate school and am the student director of the university band.  So for each home game I bring a portion of the band to the game and we bleat out the same songs each and every game.  We have to play certain songs for some of the cheer squad’s and the dance team’s routines.  It’s an easy gig but monotonous.

I was never a basketball fan, but after seeing so many games, I’ve developed an affinity for the team and its players.  Most of them don’t seem to appreciate the band much, but Ross Davis does like us and talks with me from time to time.  So I root for him even though he’s not getting a lot of playing time.

Ross got into the game for about 5 minutes in the first half, but didn’t do anything worth mentioning.  The Tigers also didn’t do all that much worthwhile.  Although they got off to an OK start they quickly fell behind and trailed all the way to the end of the half at which point they were behind 43-38.  The only player who did well was PF Jason Vickers who came off the bench to score 12 points..

The Tigers faired no better in the 2nd half and actually fell behind by 13 points.  But then in the last stages of the game, the team woke up and steadily worked their way back into the game.  Then with 2 minutes left, Deon Penn hit a 3 from the corner that finally put the Tigers ahead by a single point.  After a turnover by the Dukes, Melvin Steele hit a turnover from the key to put Towson on top 80-77.  After James Madison made one of two free throws to get within 2, they were forced to foul.  Adrian Brown sunk both free throws to cap an 82-78 comeback win.

PF Jason Vickers was the top scorer with 16 points.  PF Deon Penn tossed in 15 points and C Melvin Steele finished with 12 points.  C Jason Miner had 9 points and 8 rebounds.

As the teams walked off the court to the locker room, I overheard one of our coaches tell another, “Man, I’m glad we came back to win that, but we just have to start playing better at home.  Had it not been for our 20-5 turnover advantage, our goose would have been cooked.”

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