By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
For the fourth consecutive game, William & Mary coach
Dane Fischer saw promising signs on the offensive end. Not so much on the defensive end.
Looking machine-like at times, Towson had its best scoring night of the season in a 91-69 win Monday night at Kaplan Arena. The Tigers scored on 65% of their possessions with 38 points coming in the paint and 33 from the 3-point arc.
Towson took a 9-0 lead less than two minutes in and never slowed down. W&M (3-14, 2-2 CAA) briefly made it a two-point game, but the Tigers never trailed in winning their fourth in a row.
"We didn't have the same effort and focus on the defensive end we had in our first three league games," Fischer said. "Part of the issue was that Towson came out on a roll and that changed our mindset a bit. In the first three league games, we got off to really good defensive starts … That was certainly not the case tonight, and it kind of snowballed from there.
"I actually thought we did some nice things on the offensive end, in particular taking care of the ball, which was great to see. But tonight's game was all about the defensive end and not playing with the effort we've seen in the last three games and not executing the scout."
In a sign of things to come, the Tigers (13-5, 4-1) scored on their first three possessions — a 3-pointer, a runner in the lane, and a 3-pointer that became an and-one. The Tribe recovered by cutting Towson's lead to 13-11 on
Ben Wight's 3-point play with 13:39 remaining.
From there, the Tigers scored on six consecutive possessions for a 14-0 run. Cam Holden's follow made it 27-11 with 9:18 left in the first half.
The Tribe made it a nine-point game after
Julian Lewis's basket 14 seconds into the second half. But after back-to-back threes by Jason Gibson and Antonio Rizzuto, Towson pulled away.
Gibson led Towson with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting, 6-of-11 from deep. Four teammates also scored in double figures.
"That's a really good team," Fischer said. "They can score inside, they offensive rebound the ball like crazy, and they've got some guys who can really stretch the floor and knock down threes.
"They execute their stuff really, really well. Guys take the shots they should be taking, and they did it in every way tonight. We saw that for 40 minutes."
Although not as explosive, William & Mary also had a solid offensive night. The best thing Fischer saw was that his team had a season-low 11 turnovers.
Brandon Carroll had another strong outing with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists. That followed his season-high 16 points in Saturday's loss to James Madison.
"You can see the athleticism when he's on the floor," Fischer said. "He's really played well at the start of league for us.
"We need him to continue playing like that and with the confidence he is. I'm really pleased with how he's progressing."
Wight had 13 points against Towson's superior size in the paint.
Langdon Hatton, the reigning CAA Rookie of the Week, had eight points and five rebounds.
The Tribe scored 91 points and shot 54% in Saturday's overtime loss to Madison. It also had 25 turnovers.
"This was a better offensive performance in terms of taking care of the ball, and we rebounded on the offensive end well," Fischer said. "I had far less concerns tonight on the offensive end than the defensive end."
With the postponement of three conference games already, the conference schedule has become odd. Monday night was the Tribe's fourth consecutive home game. Starting Thursday night at Delaware, W&M will play four consecutive road games.
"We've played four home games, and Delaware has played five road games," Fischer said. "It's going to be a little bit funky when teams play home games and road games (with) the imbalance of it."
As for how his team will handle it, Fischer knows that will depend.
"We've told our team if we defend like we did in our first three league games, we're going to give ourselves a chance in virtually every game," he said. "If we defend like we did tonight, it's going to be a long night."
