Towson women edge George Mason for best start since 2008-09

Sianni Martin, Raven Bankston and Jordyn Smith combined for 57 points Sunday to lead the Towson women’s basketball team to a 79-75 win over George Mason (3-4) to improve to 5-0. Martin finished with a game-high 20 points, Bankston had 19 and Smith added a career-high 18 for the host Tigers, who are off to their best start since the 2008-09 team started 5-0. After trailing by three at the half, Towson outscored the Patriots 25-18 in the third quarter for a 62-58 lead. The Tigers opened the fourth quarter on a 6-2 run and took their largest lead of the game, 68-60, with 7:44 to play. George Mason scored seven of the next nine points to cut Towson’s lead to three, 70-67 with 4:35 to go, but a 3-pointer from Bankston pushed the Tigers’ advantage back to six, 73-67, with 3:43 remaining. After a 6-1 run brought the Patriots within 74-73 with 2:35 left, Smith scored four straight points to extend Towson’s lead to 78-73 with 27 seconds to play. Brianna Bush added10 points for the Tigers, who had four players score in double figures for the second straight game. MORE WOMEN: Pandora Wilson scored a game-high 21 points and Lakiah Sims added 17 points and seven rebounds, but host UMBC (2-3) fell to Princeton, 69-58. The Tigers (2-4) outscored the Retrievers 19-4 and shot 47.1 percent from the field in the fourth quarter and used an 11-0 run to pull away. MEN: Jacobi Boykins scored a career-high 26 points, including six 3-pointers, to lead host Louisiana Tech to a 74-53 win over UMES (0-6). Erik McCree added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs (3-2), who shot 51 percent from the field. Leading by just four at halftime, Louisiana Tech broke away midway through the second half with a 13-3 run over a nearly five-minute span to make it 56-41 with 9:43 to go. Bakari Copeland led the Hawks with 14 points and Ryan Andino added 10. receive a flagrant foul. He finished with 14 points, eight assists and two rebounds as the Wizards won, 94-91.