MBB Game 24 - Towson, 2/2/23 (Thurs), 7 PM

[triplec2195]

Do they have injuries?

They do not have new injuries. Jason Gibson averaged 9.8 points last season. He shot threes .429, which was third in the CAA. This season he averaged 8.7 points in the first three games and did not play after that. He is a senior, but if he takes a redshirt season this season and a fifth season because of COVID, he could play two more seasons.

If Towson ends with the ball, they could miss, get an offensive rebound by the basket, and score like North Carolina A&T did.

Ouch don't go there lets skip the last second drama and win by double digits LOL.

[The Shadow]

I think the most important keys to tonight are: 1) Box out on rebounds, especially on the defensive end. Towson's best offensive plays are offensive rebounds and putbacks 2) Hit your shots so there are fewer Towson defensive rebounds 3) How about a few drives to the basket to increase the possibility of foul calls 4) Be tougher, as Coach Speedy says, "The tougher team wins!"

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2023 ... fstra.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Towson at Hofstra." The 85-81 win at Charleston was our seventh unicorn score of the season, meaning the first time we won by that score. We are 15-8 for the first time since 1991-1992. We have the CAA's last two wins over AP ranked teams. The most recent win by another CAA team against a ranked team was Northeastern's 78-77 win over Number 15 Miami (FL) on November 27, 2015. It was the first time a CAA team beat an AP ranked CAA team since Richmond beat Number 15 Navy 64-62 on January 8, 1987. Estrada needed 52 games to score 1,000 for us, which is the fewest games since Demetrius Dudley did it in 47 games in 1991-1992 and 1992-1993. Both of them started at St. Peter's. Juan'ya Green needed 58 games, Charles Jenkins needed 59 games, Mike Moore (who led the CAA in scoring in 2011-2012 after Jenkins graduated) needed 60 games, and Antoine Agudio needed 62 games. We won consecutive games in which we trailed at halftime for the first time since December 28 and 30, 2019. We are 4-4 when trailing at halftime, and 11-4 when not trailing at halftime.

[triplec2195]

I think the most important keys to tonight are: 1) Box out on rebounds, especially on the defensive end. Towson's best offensive plays are offensive rebounds and putbacks 2) Hit your shots so there are fewer Towson defensive rebounds 3) How about a few drives to the basket to increase the possibility of foul calls 4) Be tougher, as Coach Speedy says, "The tougher team wins!"

Yeah in simple terms and we know Towson is a strong rebounding team. We know we're not going to shoot 16% from three like we did on their court so this game could be a war. A tough physical game.

[dutchPride86]

Maybe time to stop doubling Thompson??? If he gets some post up 2s that's not gonna beat Hofstra, letting Timberlake go full on inferno got them on the ropes

[dutchPride86]

Off the ropes! Hofstra shown some real guts down the stretch last 2 games. Credit Speedy for going back to Washington, kid might have been mvp of the game tonight.

Rebounding is what it is for this team at this point, just gotta find ways to keep winning in spite of it

[dutchPride86]

Drexel stuns Charleston on a jumper in closing seconds! Hofstra is now in first place, and in control of their own destiny for the 1 seed

[Flying Dutchmen]

Awesome game that’s what it’s all about!

[EvanJ]

Drexel stuns Charleston on a jumper in closing seconds! Hofstra is now in first place, and in control of their own destiny for the 1 seed

Charleston led from 11:41 left in the first half until 3.7 seconds left in the game when freshman Justin Moore made a long two to win 70-69. Charleston's Dalton Bolon and Drexel's Amari Williams tied for the lead with 19 points. Charleston's Reyne Smith shot 0-6. Williams had 12 rebounds, but committed 6 turnovers. I wonder what seed we will get in brackets that choose automatic bids by the current conference standings. Florida Atlantic lost 86-77 at Alabama-Birmingham (UAB), so it was a bad night for mid-majors wanting at-large bids.

Monmouth scored 45 in the second half to win 70-62 hosting Delaware. Jameer Nelson Jr. led with 20 points. Monmouth had five double-digit scorers led by Myles Foster's 16.

UNCW won 87-63 hosting North Carolina A&T. UNCW's Shykeim Phillips had 14 points and 5 assists, which was 1 more assist than North Carolina A&T. UNCW got 73 points from players other than their leading scorer for the game. North Carolina A&T's leading scorer for the season is Kam Woods, who shot 3-14.

Elon won 69-55 at Stony Brook. Elon more than doubled Stony Brook in the first half 46-22. Elon's Jerald Gillens-Butler led all players with 19 points. Stony Brook is injury-plagued, and one of their top two players, Tyler Stephenson-Moore, did not play. I do not know why.

Hampton came back from down 34-27 at halftime to win 62-57 hosting William & Mary. Hampton's Kyrese Mullen led all players with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Hampton won with a horrible field goal percentage of .339.

Nicolas Timberlake made 7 threes. We are 8-3 in the last 11 games in which an opponent made at least 7 threes. I'll type about our game later.

[triplec2195]

Drexel stuns Charleston on a jumper in closing seconds! Hofstra is now in first place, and in control of their own destiny for the 1 seed

LUV,LUV,LUV IT I predicted a Drexel win of course I didn't think it could happen!! Lol

[Captain]

I thought the team played as physical a game as I can remember. Towson is always physical. I saw more Hofstra players diving for balls than I can remember as well.
For years I have seen other teams outwork and outscramble us. I think there has been an added emphasis on the 50-50 balls and I love it.
Talent plus hustle and scrapping is a winning combination.

[HUSID80]

Huge statement win for the Pride...we were not at our best but matched their physicality which was huge.
Going forward we need to figure out how to control Timberlake.

[triplec2195]

This was one of the better games I've been to recently of course come from behind wins are always so sweet. Especially important wins like this one. It was evident right from the beginning of this game that Carlos guarding Timberlake was a HUGE mistake. IDK how many of his 14 points in the first half could be directly as a result of Carlos being in over his head literally with a big height disadvantage. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Washington played much better D and hit two three's in the first half. The second half was more of the same but worse. Carlos sat some of the first half with two fouls but was playing plenty of minutes in the second half until he gave up at least one three guarding Timberlake. This was when we got within one point then in a short period of time we were down 7 on two 3's by Timberlake. Bryce Washington came back in the game and helped to slow down Timberlake and he also hit two more three's. IMO 20/20 hindsight if Washington played more minutes in this game we would have won by more. Carlos at 6' could not guard Timberlake at 6'5 in fact IDK why he was even guarding him. Great win for us and solid game for Estrada who took over the game towards the end along with some tough baskets by Tyler Thomas. Also credit to Williams who had 10 points on 5-7 along with 7 boards and 2 blocks. Thomas finishes with 20 and Estrada with 27 with 8 boards and 3 assists. We need to run the board now with teams that we should beat with the key word being should!!

[EvanJ]

Our players other than Estrada shot free throws 1-6. We avoiding mistakes with 12 fouls and 9 turnovers. Towson had 7 more offensive rebounds, but only 5 more second chance points. We had only 3 steals, and Towson had the only 2 fast break points. On the Analytics tab, Timberlake was the best player by efficiency, game score, and net points (which is not +/-). Estrada was second best in all of those. We were -14 in 17 minutes with Carlos, and +17 in 25 minutes of Washington, so for two minutes they played together with Thomas on the bench.

[Cards]

This was one of the better games I've been to recently of course come from behind wins are always so sweet. Especially important wins like this one. It was evident right from the beginning of this game that Carlos guarding Timberlake was a HUGE mistake. IDK how many of his 14 points in the first half could be directly as a result of Carlos being in over his head literally with a big height disadvantage. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Washington played much better D and hit two three's in the first half. The second half was more of the same but worse. Carlos sat some of the first half with two fouls but was playing plenty of minutes in the second half until he gave up at least one three guarding Timberlake. This was when we got within one point then in a short period of time we were down 7 on two 3's by Timberlake. Bryce Washington came back in the game and helped to slow down Timberlake and he also hit two more three's. IMO 20/20 hindsight if Washington played more minutes in this game we would have won by more. Carlos at 6' could not guard Timberlake at 6'5 in fact IDK why he was even guarding him. Great win for us and solid game for Estrada who took over the game towards the end along with some tough baskets by Tyler Thomas. Also credit to Williams who had 10 points on 5-7 along with 7 boards and 2 blocks. Thomas finishes with 20 and Estrada with 27 with 8 boards and 3 assists. We need to run the board now with teams that we should beat with the key word being should!!

re JC, As I was at the Mack sitting with my wife, I was telling her the same thing (of course she had no idea what I was talking about). It was a total mismatch from the get-go. It was not only the height difference, as Timberlake was getting a step or two on JC almost every time he had the ball. Now I must say that JC has gotten better on D, however, he is simply not able to guard a guy like this. Of course BW was not able to shut TImberlake down either, but I thought he did a much better job than JC. Add to it the 4 threes that BW hit, and he is really becoming a nice surprise at this stage in the season!

[Wags]

They had to have this one to really make the win in Charleston mean something. Great job to hang around and stay in it, and then a strong close to pull it out. And look what they get for their effort - Charleston loses again and now they're in first place!

Speedy was right about the loss at Towson - a mere aberration due to a very rare, ice-cold shooting day. They have been very strong ever since.

5-1 was about as good as anyone could have hoped for during the key six-game streak we all pointed to and that's exactly what they went during those six games. Never want to take anything for granted in this league, but now that they're past that stretch, they have a very good opportunity to run the table with the remaining seven games. If they do that, and go 16-2, win another CAA regular season title, and take an 11-game winning streak to DC, that would be beyond anyone's prior expectations heading into the conference tourney. Much work to do to get to that point, but that chance is now before them after they navigated what was seemingly their toughest stretch on the CAA schedule very well. They have as good a chance to cut the nets in D.C. as anyone, maybe the best chance at this point.

p.s. can we please see those yellow unforms at home more often?!?!?!

[Cards]

They had to have this one to really make the win in Charleston mean something. Great job to hang around and stay in it, and then a strong close to pull it out. And look what they get for their effort - Charleston loses again and now they're in first place!

Speedy was right about the loss at Towson - a mere aberration due to a very rare, ice-cold shooting day. They have been very strong ever since.

5-1 was about as good as anyone could have hoped for during the key six-game streak we all pointed to and that's exactly what they went during those six games. Never want to take anything for granted in this league, but now that they're past that stretch, they have a very good opportunity to run the table with the remaining seven games. If they do that, and go 16-2, win another CAA regular season title, and take an 11-game winning streak to DC, that would be beyond anyone's prior expectations heading into the conference tourney. Much work to do to get to that point, but that chance is now before them after they navigated what was seemingly their toughest stretch on the CAA schedule very well. They have as good a chance to cut the nets in D.C. as anyone, maybe the best chance at this point.

p.s. can we please see those yellow unforms at home more often?!?!?!

Agree Wags....even regarding the yellow unis After not seeing them for a while, I thought they looked good.

[The Shadow]

Well deserved HU win. Towson has always been a difficult opponent. As Coach Speedy says, "The tougher team won." Good to see Coach Joe at the game tonight. Great to be able to control the top CAA Tournament seed.

[triplec2195]

This was one of the better games I've been to recently of course come from behind wins are always so sweet. Especially important wins like this one. It was evident right from the beginning of this game that Carlos guarding Timberlake was a HUGE mistake. IDK how many of his 14 points in the first half could be directly as a result of Carlos being in over his head literally with a big height disadvantage. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Washington played much better D and hit two three's in the first half. The second half was more of the same but worse. Carlos sat some of the first half with two fouls but was playing plenty of minutes in the second half until he gave up at least one three guarding Timberlake. This was when we got within one point then in a short period of time we were down 7 on two 3's by Timberlake. Bryce Washington came back in the game and helped to slow down Timberlake and he also hit two more three's. IMO 20/20 hindsight if Washington played more minutes in this game we would have won by more. Carlos at 6' could not guard Timberlake at 6'5 in fact IDK why he was even guarding him. Great win for us and solid game for Estrada who took over the game towards the end along with some tough baskets by Tyler Thomas. Also credit to Williams who had 10 points on 5-7 along with 7 boards and 2 blocks. Thomas finishes with 20 and Estrada with 27 with 8 boards and 3 assists. We need to run the board now with teams that we should beat with the key word being should!!

re JC, As I was at the Mack sitting with my wife, I was telling her the same thing (of course she had no idea what I was talking about). It was a total mismatch from the get-go. It was not only the height difference, as Timberlake was getting a step or two on JC almost every time he had the ball. Now I must say that JC has gotten better on D, however, he is simply not able to guard a guy like this. Of course BW was not able to shut TImberlake down either, but I thought he did a much better job than JC. Add to it the 4 threes that BW hit, and he is really becoming a nice surprise at this stage in the season!

Certainly spot on here Cards and credit to Timberlake who was having a good game and sharing the ball. Agree about JC THAT HE HAS WORKED on his game on both ends of the court but IDK what the coaches were thinking letting JC try to guard Timberlake. It seems like Timberlake saves his best games for us and has a career high in this game.

[triplec2195]

Like the comment about the yellow uniforms definitely like the way they look.