First-place Tribe can’t cool Towson
Despite loss, W&M retains CAA’s top spot
WILLIAMSBURG — William & Mary began the day as the unexpected leader in the Colonial Athletic Association. Towson came in as the hottest team in the conference.
In the end, the Tigers remained hot and the Tribe remained in first place.
Towson scored the game’s first six points and never trailed in a 70-58 win Saturday at Kaplan Arena. The Tigers shot 53 percent, were plus-7 on the boards and forced 14 turnovers in winning their sixth consecutive game.
But because the secondplace College of Charleston was upset by UNC Wilmington, W&M (15-7, 7-2) retained its one-game lead at the conference schedule’s midpoint.
Towson (12-9, 6-3) took a 6-0 lead in the first two minutes and scored the first seven points of the second half. The Tribe spent the afternoon playing catch-up. Each time it got close, the Tigers answered.
“It was definitely frus
trating,” said W&M forward Nathan Knight, who finished with 20 points and six rebounds. “Being a competitor, it’s tough when you get so close to that hump and you can’t seem to get over.
“A credit to Towson — they played extremely well tonight. But it’s the game of basketball. It’s not going to be perfect.”
After falling behind 16-7 six minutes in, the Tribe forced a tie at 25 with 7:57 remaining in the first half. Towson answered with a 9-2 run, but W&M cut the deficit to four at the break.
A 7-0 run to start the second half gave Towson a 46-35 lead with 16:11 remaining. Two minutes after that, Knight picked up his fourth foul.
Still, W&M hung around and cut the Tigers’ lead to 58-56 with 5:15 left. Then came another 7-0 run by Towson, which put the game away. In six critical possessions, the Tribe went 0 for 3 from the field with four turnovers.
“They outplayed us,” W&M coach Dane Fischer said. “I told the guys afterward, I loved the way we fought. We just couldn’t quite get over the hump, couldn’t quite get it going enough.”
On its first 26 possessions,
Towson went 15 of 21 from the field. The Tribe shot 52 percent in the first half but still trailed.
“It just felt like they couldn’t miss, really,” Knight said. “They were shooting the shots we wanted them to take. They were just making them.”
Brian Fobbs was his usual self with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, and Allen Betrand added 16 on 7-of-12. Towson’s unexpected offense came from freshman Jason Gibson, who scored 15 of his season-high 21 points in the first half. He came in averaging seven points a game.
“He’s been playing really well lately, and Coach Howland mentioned that in the scout,” Fischer said, referring to Tribe assistant Mike Howland. “In their previous game against Elon, he was playing with a ton of confidence and making some big shots.
“He carried that forward, obviously, into today. … We could have made it a little more challenging and put him under a little more duress. He certainly got going and stayed hot the rest of the way.”
As part of Coaches vs. Cancer week, Fischer and his wife, Chelsea, pledged to donate $5 for every student who attended Saturday’s game to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Chelsea’s mother, Nancy Chowning, died of leukemia at age 49.
Of the season-high 4,848 fans at Kaplan, 1,121 were students. The Fischers will be donating $5,605.
Also, Fischer said Towson coach Pat Skerry gave him $100 for the cause.
“That was an unbelievable class act,” Fischer said.