Tigers Drop Two
By: Desmond Boyle, Staff Writer
The Tigers dropped two games away from home this week, losing 88-60 to Cornell on Wednesday and 105-86 to Minnesota on Sunday.
Towson traveled to Minnesota Sunday to take on the Gophers.
Towson started strong behind three point shooting from senior guard Dominique Johnson and junior guard Raven Bankston, to open up with an 18-7 lead over the Gophers. Minnesota then rallied to narrow the deficit to 20-19 going into second quarter. The Gophers then opened up a nine point advantage with just under two minutes left in the first half. Towson closed out the half scoring 10 of the final 13 points in the second quarter to trail 48-46 at the break.
Despite Johnson keeping Towson in the game with perimeter shooting throughout the second half, Johnson set a school record of most three pointers in a single game with nine.
Johnson finished with 35 points while Bankston finished with 25, but these high scoring efforts were not enough, and the Tigers again struggled in the fourth quarter.
Minnesota outscored the Tigers by fourteen points in the fourth quarter en route to their 105-86 victory over Towson.
Towson started off well Wednesday, keeping up with the Big Red for much of the first quarter. Sophomore center Daijha Thomas added three buckets to help the Tigers stay close to Cornell going into the second quarter down 17-20.
Cornell opened up an eight point lead to start the second quarter before Towson went on an eight to two run behind solid shooting from sophomore guard Markeema Crawford. The Big Red then went on another scoring run to close the half with a 44-37 lead.
The Tigers then struggled offensively for much of the second half, turning the ball over several times and converting on fewer shots.
Towson only managed 23 points in the second half while Cornell scored 25 points in the fourth quarter alone.
For much of the second half, the Big Red carried a double-digit lead before closing out the 88-60 victory.
Freshman guard Sianni Martin led Towson in scoring with 18 points and Johnson was the only other Tiger to score double digits with 10 points.
“We’ll take advantage of two weeks off we have to work on putting more points on the board and fixing things defensively,” Head Coach Niki Reid Geckeler said. “We have a young and inexperienced lineup and these tough out of conference games will help them when we get to CAA play.”
Towson continues its out of conference schedule December 20, at 2 p.m. at home against Auburn.
