Lady tigers fall to Eagles
By: Desmond Boyle, Staff Writer
The women’s basketball team dropped their home opener to Coppin State 81-69 on Sunday, keeping Towson winless thus far this season.
The game started with both offenses struggling to find a rhythm as Towson pressured the Eagles early with a full court press that made Coppin State work to get to the basket.
The Eagles played a 1-3-1 zone defense that limited Towson’s guards’ ability to shoot from the perimeter. Both teams stuck with their stringent defense throughout the opening quarter with the Tigers holding a 13-12 lead in a low scoring game.
Towson only shot 13.3 percent from the field in the opening quarter, scoring most of their points in transition. Coppin State then opened the second quarter on a scoring run to take a five-point lead before the Tigers started shooting from outside the arc.
Senior guard Dominique Johnson hit two three pointers and Breonn Hughey added one of her own to help the Tigers take a 33-29 lead at half.
One crucial factor in Towson’s lead was their impressive foul shooting, the Tigers went 9-12 from the line while the Eagles only managed to hit 40 perecnt of their attempts from the charity stripe. Johnson led all players in scoring with 10 points, while Raine Bankston and Daijha Thomas led the Tigers in rebounds with five each.
The two teams battled and traded buckets to open the quarter before Coppin State went on a 6-1 run to level the game at 40. Towson then established a lead at the end of the quarter with an 8-0 run, thanks in part to Hughey connecting on all four of her foul shots during the run. The run boosted the Tigers who took a 54-48 lead going into the final quarter.
With just under 10 minutes to play everything came undone for the Tigers who started turning the ball over and losing focus on defense allowing the Eagles to get easy baskets. The Eagles went on a 27-5 run with Omaah Tayong scoring 14 of those points, most coming down low as Coppin State passed the ball around very well.
Towson then began to foul when trailing 77-63 but it was too late and the Eagles connected on several foul shots to make the final score 81-69.
“I think mentally we need to be a little tougher.” Head Coach Niki Geckeler said, “This is a young team and I think this season you’re gonna see them grow as a team.”
The Tigers will get their next chance to grow against UMBC at the SECU this Tuesday at 11 a.m.