Lighter Garza now a Big Ten heavyweight
IOWA CITY, Iowa — If you think about going to places like Hawaii for summer vacation as a high school student, it probably means more time on the beach than the basketball court, and working on your tan more than your jump shot. Then again, most high school kids don’t have fathers like Frank Garza.
Not that Luka Garza didn’t have any down time on three trips while he was at the Maret School, a small private school in Washington. But much of those vacations were spent getting Garza in shape. Despite being 6 feet 11 and 265 pounds, he had no major college offers after his sophomore year.
Chuck Driesell recalled seeing Garza
against a league foe.
“I don’t know,” he said with a chuckle. “I just keep playing, I guess.”
Fobbs recorded his first 20-point outing against a CAA opponent after averaging just nine points in the first three losses to Northeastern, Hofstra and Charleston.
He insisted though that his mindset has not changed in back-to-back wins against UNC-Wilmington and now the Dragons.
“Just keep being aggressive,” he said. “Keep shooting the ball. Don’t worry if you miss or make it. Just keep moving to the next play.
“That’s what I did tonight.”
Betrand said Fobbs set the tone for the rest of the team in the first half when he powered Towson to a 47-25 advantage at halftime — the program’s fourth lead of at least 19 points at the break in five home games against Drexel.
“He’s a scoring bucket,” Betrand said. “Anytime he can get off to a hot start like that, we’re going to win games, and I just try to add in where I can.”
Betrand scored 11 points in the first half, but acknowledged trying to shoulder more of the scoring burden in the second half after the Dragons made some defensive adjustments.
“I saw all the attention was on him,” said
Betrand, who has averaged 18.2 points in five league games. “So I came in and do what I do — shoot 3s, make shots, get to the basket, play my game basically.”
Fobbs said he wasn’t surprised by Betrand’s performance, which included three assists.
“He’s a dog,” Fobbs said. “He’s always going to be aggressive. He’s a killer, sohe’s going to do that.”
Nakiye Sanders, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound redshirt senior forward, led the Tigers in rebounds with seven and assists with five (a career high), and coach Pat Skerry pointed out that the team will continue to rely on Fobbs, Betrand and Sanders to initiate the offense and anchor the defense.
“I think we’ve got to play through a couple of the guys more, and that means the responsibility is on those guys,” he said, pointing to Fobbs and Betrand flanking him during the postgame conference.
“Tonight, they delivered, but they have to continue to deliver for us by making good decisions, taking good shots, and making sure the ball moves. I thought they really both did that at a high level tonight.”
Sophomore guard Camren Wynter paced the Dragons (9-8, 2-2) with 22 points and three rebounds, and sophomore guard Coletrane Washington chipped in 17 points and three assists.
Notes: While Drexel leads the overall series at 49-25, Towson has won 12 of the past 15 meetings and the last five played at SECU Arena.
With a swat of a layup attempt by Wynter with 15:29 left in the second half, redshirt senior forward Dennis Tunstall collected his 98th career block and moved into sole possession of ninth place on the program’s all-time list.