Turnaround brightens Towson’s outlook
In retrospect, the turning point for the Towson women’s basketball team unfolded during halftime of a game three days before Christmas.
On Dec. 22, the Tigers were staring at a 12-point deficit at Marshall with only two quarters left in their nonconference finale. Junior guard/forward Nukiya Mayo said the players knew the next 20 minutes could go a long way toward determining the team’s future path.
“We just had to decide that that team was not better than us and that we shouldn’t be down12 at halftime and that we were not playing our hardest on defense and that we could definitely execute better on offense,” she said Wednesday. “Nobody was upset. We just knew what we needed to do to win the game.”
Towson eventually outscored the Thundering Herd, 49-30, in the final two quarters to cement a 76-69 win. What the team did not know at the time was the outcome would ignite a five-game
winning streak that has the Tigers reaching 10 victories in their first 15 games, the program’s fastest pace to double-digit wins since the 2011-12 squad started 10-2.
Towson’s current run includes a 4-0 start in the Colonial Athletic Association, marking the program’s best opening in league play since the 2007-08 team won its first six conference games. The Tigers, who are tied with preseason favorite James Madison (12-3, 4-0 CAA) atop the league, will try to improve to 5-0 on Friday night at the College of Charleston (5-9, 1-2).
The Tigers find themselves in unfamiliar territory, which is refreshing for coach Diane Richardson, who went 9-21 overall and 4-14 in the CAA in her first year leading the program last season. But she emphasized that now is not the time to grow content with the early success.
“Our goal is to focus on what we have ahead of us,” she said. “We have a saying, ‘You’re only as good as your last game.’ So we’re trying to stay levelheaded and not look too far into the future because we’ve got to battle [today].”
Towson’s sudden rise to the top of the conference after being voted eighth in the league’s 10-team preseason poll is surprising considering it had graduated two starters — 6-foot-4 forward Mary Cuevas (team-leading 13.1 points and 9.0 rebounds per game) and 5-10 point guard Raine Bankston (12.3 points per game and teamhigh 63 assists and 57 steals). The tigers also watched 5-8 point guard Etalyia Vogt (6.5 points per game) transfer to the University of the District of Columbia.
But the offense has been strengthened by the additions of 5-8 redshirt sophomore shooting guard Kionna Jeter and 5-9 redshirt junior point guard Q. Murray. Jeter, a transfer from Gulf Coast State, entered Thursday leading the CAA in scoring at 21.1 points per game and steals at 3.4 per game. Murray, a Baltimore resident and Milford Mill graduate who sat out last season after transferring from Appalachian State, ranks third in the league in assists at 4.1 per game and third on the team in points at 8.1 per game.
Jeter, Murray and Mayo (13.1 ppg, 7.1 rebounds per game) have helped fuel a Tigers offense that ranks third in the conference in scoring, but Jeter insisted defenses can’t solely pay attention to the trio.
“Everybody contributes and does what they have to do,” she said. “I just wanted to be a factor. I just wanted to come in and do what I needed to do to help my teammates out.
Murray said she believes the different this season is that the current group of players has found a comfort zone under Richardson, who had been an assistant coach at Maryland, West Virginia and George Washington and the head coach at from home. So I need that family environRiverdale Baptist School in Prince George’s ment so that I can be comfortable.”
County. Towson’s 4-0 start in the CAA is a
“Last year’s team was their first year with blessing and a curse because the rest of the a new coaching staff,” Murray said. “So the conference will now set its sights on trying chemistry wasn’t all the way there, but they to end the team’s run. That message is one still had potential, and I knew new pieces that Mayo, one of the team’s veterans, has were coming in that had potential to make tried to reinforce. everything work out.” “We don’t want to become complacent
Richardson conceded it has taken some with where we are,” she said. “We know we time for her and her coaching staff to fill the have to keep going. Since we’re winning roster with the type of players who embrace now, everybody’s going to try to beat us.” the uptempo pace and aggressive perimeter The Tigers have been a notoriously slow defensive style she preaches. bunch, getting outscored by 46 points in the
“We knew as a coaching staff that we had first half this season. to get our players better and accustomed to But against league competition, they the style of play, and our concentration was have outscored their opponents by eight just on getting them better,” she said. “We points in the first two quarters, and Jeter knew the wins would come once they said the players have to maintain that grasped all of that and bought into what we aggression. were trying to do. That’s what has hap“I think we come out slow sometimes, pened. The results are the result of them and we get down to teams,” she said. “We stepping up their games.” don’t need to get down because then we
The players are a cohesive bunch, have to pull ourselves back out of a hole. attending football games and other onThat doesn’t need to be the case.” campus events together, playing laser tag While no one is anticipating Towson will and watching movies as a group. Both Jeter complete an 18-0 run in the conference, and Murray said their chemistry has been there is no prohibition about openly aided by cookouts and pool parties at” discussing capturing the CAA title. Richardson’s home in Howard County. “That’s what we’ve been trying to do thus
“Outside of basketball, she’s always there far,” Murray said. “We can be great. We can for us when we need her,” said Jeter, who go all the way.” grew up in Spartanburg, S.C. “She’s just like my grandmom from home, and I’m far away