TOWSON, Md. - On Tuesday night at the Towson Center, the Tigers opened up with a 13-4 lead in the first five minutes of the game. Freshman guard Kris Walden nailed a three-pointer and a free throw while senior center Robert Nwankwo scored seven points in the stretch.
But, the lead was short lived. Towson held on until the 10:16 mark when freshman guard Will Adams made two free throws to give the Tigers a 20-19 lead. But, the Jaspers took off on a 20-9 run to take a 39-29 halftime lead.
In the second half, Towson made another run. After getting behind by 12 with 15:54 left, the Tigers went on a 10-0 run to pull within two on a three-point play from freshman Jervon Pressley.
But then, the Towson offense went silent and Manhattan took advantage. The Tigers scored just one basket over a six-minute stretch before a jumper by Pressley with 8:17 left. By then, the Jaspers were up by 66-55 and once the lead got into the double digits, the Tigers had no more spurts left.
Coach Pat Skerry has seen this from his young team before. While playing basically a seven-man rotation, the Tigers have very little margin for error. While one player can have an off game, they need their top scorers to contribute.
"I was disappointed in our defense in the last 10 minutes of the game," said Skerry after the game. "I thought it really let us down. Everyone has to play well for us. You can't let a team shoot 63 percent in a half and win a basketball game at this level.”
The Jaspers shot 48.3% from the field overall and made 10 of 23 three-pointers. Towson was held to 41.5% shooting from the field, but once again, the Tigers were hurt by their biggest Achilles' heel this season - turnovers.
The Jaspers, who utilize a 10-man rotation, exploited the Towson mistakes by scoring 28 points off of their 23 turnovers. They also had 47 points off their bench and had six fast break points while Towson had no points from the bench.
The Tigers did improve on one very important category on Tuesday night and that was foul shooting. Towson was shooting just 52% from the line coming into the game and managed to shoot 25 of 33 (76%) against Manhattan.
Towson also had a slight size advantage against the Jaspers and used that by outrebounding Manhattan, 33-25. However, the quicker Jaspers outscored the Tigers in the paint, 32-16.
While Nwankwo had a strong game with 19 points, nine boards and three blocks, leading scorer Marcus Damas (12.8 points per game heading into Tuesday), was held to seven points on one of seven shooting. Deon Jones, the Tigers' third-leading scorer, struggled with four points and a team-high eight turnovers.
The Tigers need a team effort to extend short spurts of good play into long ones.
“We really talk to our group about the next play," said Skerry. "When you make a good play, [go to the] next play. We get high after a great play, but it's just one play. If we make a bad play, we compound that by making a second bad play. We need to learn how to gain that next play concept. That's what good teams do; they just go on to the next play. We're not at that point yet.”
