Towson men’s basketball defies 30-minute delay and overtime, defeats Stony Brook 73-64

By Jake Shindel, men’s basketball reporter

Despite a 30-minute delay in the second half due to a shot clock malfunction and then overtime, Towson men’s basketball earned a victory over Stony Brook on Thursday.

Four Towson players scored in double figures, led by guard Tyler Tejada’s 16 points, a game-high. The effort gave Towson (9-7, 21 in CAA) a 73-64 win over Stony Brook (8-8, 1-2) and extended the Tigers’ winning streak at home to 15 games, dating back to last season.

In addition to Tejada’s scoring, guard Dylan Williamson scored 14 points (12 in the first half), guard Nendah Tarke scored 13 and forward Charles Thompson finished with 12. Tarke, who shot 6-for-12 from the free throw line in his first five games of the season, shot 6-for-6 on Thursday.

Stony Brook was led by guard Dean Noll’s 15, but Towson contained the Seawolves’ leading scorer, Tyler Stephenson-Moore, holding him to nine points. Towson guard Christian May struggled shooting the ball but made up for it with his defense on Stephenson-Moore.

“My shot wasn’t falling early, so I feel like I’m the type of player [where] if my shot isn’t falling, I can do other things,” May said. “Coming into this game, I knew he was a really good player, so I knew to be locked in. I think I did a pretty good job of guarding him.”

The game was back-and-forth most of the way, with Towson holding a five-point lead at halftime. Despite the close game, with Towson’s nine-point win being the largest point differential of the night, Towson led for over 35 minutes.

Towson shot 7-for-13 from 3-point range in the first half to earn the lead but allowed Stony Brook back into the game after shooting 2-for-11 from deep in the second half. The Seawolves outscored the Tigers 32-27 in the second half.

Stony Brook’s starting lineup featured two players standing at 6-foot-10 or above. But forward Chris Maidoh and center Keenan Fitzmorris combined for 14 points on 7-for-18 shooting. Towson also won the rebound battle, 40-35, after Thompson’s eight-rebound performance.

Still, Thompson said his performance on the night was average because of a costly turnover at the end of regulation, which aided Stony Brook’s effort to force overtime. 

“I had some key turnovers down the stretch a little bit that we can clean up,” Thompson said. “Overall, we got the win, so I’m not too worried about it.”

Up by two with 31 seconds left and the ball, Towson inbounded the ball to Thompson, who had it stolen by Noll, and it resulted in a fast break layup to tie the game. Towson held the ball for the final shot, but Williamson could not convert a shot through traffic, sending the game to overtime.

Going into overtime, Towson coach Pat Skerry told his team to get stops on the defensive end and to work for good looks on offense.

“Just try to get stops at that point and make sure we get a good shot,” Skerry said. “The live-ball turnovers are what do harm for us. If we can stay away from those, we have a [narrow path] to have the type of success that we want to have.” 

Skerry’s team responded in overtime, allowing just four points from Stony Brook in the five-minute period. 

Towson shot 3-for-4 in overtime, including another late-game 3-pointer from Tejada, who hit a last-second shot to put Towson past UNCW in the team’s last game. 

The Tigers travel up the coast to face Northeastern (6-10, 1-2), a noon tipoff on Saturday.