By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
After opening its conference schedule at James Madison Friday night, William & Mary didn't get a break. Next up was Towson, which has the Colonial Athletic Association's highest spot in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings at No. 78.
The Tigers were every bit as good as expected in a 91-55 win over the Tribe Sunday afternoon at SECU Arena. Towson, which came in 28th nationally in scoring at 78.5 points a game, shot 50% both overall and from the 3-point arc (12-of-24).
"We've got to be more disciplined," Tribe coach Ed Swanson said. "Towson is athletically superior to us, and in order for us to compete against teams like what we had this weekend, we've got to be more disciplined. We haven't shown that.
"This was a tough weekend at JMU and at Towson, a tough weekend to dust the rust off against two of the more athletic teams. We've got to get back in the gym hopefully full strength and get back to more spited workouts and more spirited practices."
William & Mary (5-8, 0-2 CAA) shot 40% and was 9-of-19 from deep, both numbers higher than its season average. Sydney Wagner led the Tribe with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Riley Casey added 11 and was 4-of-9, 3-of-6 from deep.
What held W&M back were turnovers (26) and offensive rebounds (five, which produced three second-chance points).
"We played well together in spurts offensively, but in basketball you've got to string together a good offensive possession and a good defensive possession," Swanson said. "And you've got to do that more times than the other team does. We didn't do that.
"Our conditioning looked a little bit off. We were breathing heavy, and I don't know if that had anything to do with coming off the holidays and not playing for a while. This weekend, especially, exposed our weaknesses. We've got to get back in the gym and work at those things."
In addition to three players who were already out for the season with injuries, W&M also was missing Kayla Beckwith and guard Lanni Brown.
Towson had five scorers in double figures led by Aleah Nelson, a transfer from Cincinnati, with 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting.
William & Mary was closer for a while and trailed 16-13 in the final minute of the first quarter. But the Tribe gave up a wide-open 3-pointer to Kylie Kornegay-Lucas, a transfer from Virginia, and a layup to Rayne Tucker, who played her first two seasons at James Madison.
That gave Towson (11-1, 2-0) a 21-13 lead to close the first quarter. The Tigers scored the first five points of the second period and led by double digits the rest of the way.
Next for the Tribe is a home game Friday night against UNC Wilmington (3-9, 0-2), which lost in overtime at Drexel Sunday.
"We'll get in tomorrow and watch some film and then then we'll get back at it Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," Swanson said. "It'll be nice to be home. This has been a tough stretch.
"We failed the test this weekend, but we'll have another opportunity. Hopefully, we'll learn from it and improve."
