WASHINGTON — Trailing at halftime is usually a discouraging sign for Towson men’s basketball. Not so at the Coastal Athletic Association Tournament.
For the second game in a row, the Tigers cobbled a strong effort in the second half to overcome a deficit. On Sunday afternoon, they used an 11-0 run midway through the second half to help overtake UNC Wilmington, 66-56, in a quarterfinal at the Entertainment & Sports Arena.
Redshirt freshman point guard Dylan Williamson scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the second half and contributed four assists and two rebounds, and redshirt junior shooting guard Nendah Tarke compiled 15 points, five rebounds and two blocks to propel Towson (20-13), the No. 5 seed in the tournament, to a semifinal game against No. 1 seed College of Charleston on Monday at 6 p.m. The Cougars (25-7) walloped No. 8 seed Monmouth, 83-59, in an earlier quarterfinal.
With the victory, the Tigers forged three consecutive seasons of at least 20 wins for the first time in program history and three straight berths in the CAA Tournament semifinals. They also vanquished a few ghosts by knocking off a higher-seeded opponent for the first time since 2009 when that squad, as the No. 11 seed, upset No. 3 seed Northeastern, 58-54, in the quarterfinals.
“I’m happy to be able to get 20 wins,” coach Pat Skerry said. “It’s not easy to do.”
Before the CAA Tournament, Towson had dropped nine of 10 games this season when trailing at halftime. On Saturday against William & Mary in the quarterfinals, the Tigers overcame a 44-38 hole early in the second half with a 20-0 run to forge a 67-56 victory.
Such a possibility seemed unlikely Sunday in the first half when the Seahawks (22-10) took command by marching to a 30-24 lead with 57.2 seconds left in the period. By that time, they had converted 11 turnovers by Towson into 14 points and eight steals.
The numbers revived memories of the Tigers’ 75-64 loss at UNCW on March 2 when they committed 19 turnovers, their third-highest total of the season. Tarke, a Coppin State transfer, said the players huddled during halftime about cutting down on their self-inflicted cuts.
“Just trust what we do,” he said. “We’re not really a high-turnover team. We just try not to let the defense dictate what we do. As long as we play our game and do our stuff, we know we’ll be good. We just had to settle down.”
Just before halftime, freshman shooting guard Tyler Tejada scored five points in the final 32 seconds to draw Towson within one at 30-29. His last bucket was a Hail Mary 3-pointer from the Seahawks’ free-throw line that banked off the backboard and through the hoop just before the buzzer sounded.
“We were very fortunate there,” Skerry said with a laugh. “Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while. It gave us great momentum. Of course he shot it with five seconds left, which wasn’t the smartest play, but the result was pretty good. It certainly was a big boost here. You’re kind of hanging by a thread.”
In the second half, the Tigers turned the ball over only five times as they used a four-guard rotation among Williamson, Tarke, Tejada, freshman Mekhi Lowery (10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks) and sophomore Christian May to handle the ball against the Seahawks pressure. (Skerry credited his assistant coaches for crafting that strategy.)
The defense also maintained its tight squeeze on UNCW’s shooters, who connected on only 22.2% (2-for-9) of their 3-pointers and went 5:16 without a point. That opened the door for Towson to use a 10-0 run in a 2:50 span to turn a 39-38 deficit into a 49-39 advantage.
“Give Towson all the credit,” Seahawks coach Takayo Siddle said. “Just thinking back to last week when we played them, we knew what we were up against. We knew they’re extremely tough, well-coached, organized. Pat’s got really good coaches, and they do a good job. We knew we were in for a dogfight. We were prepared. They did a really good job of attacking us on both ends.”
The Tigers made10 of 11 free throws in the final 76 seconds to essentially put the game out of reach. But when Lowery attempted to score another basket in the final seconds, he was wrapped up by sophomore shooting guard Nolan Hodge. Some words were exchanged, and both teams skipped the usual postgame handshake.
There seemed some residual tension stemming from that game on March 2 when Towson graduate student power forward Charles Thompson was ejected for head-butting Hodge with 22 seconds left and UNCW graduate student point guard Shykeim Phillips slamming home a dunk with 10 seconds remaining. For his head butt, Thompson sat out the first half of Saturday’s 67-56 win against William & Mary.
When asked whether Phillips’ play influenced Lowery’s decision, Skerry replied: “I would prefer that our guys didn’t try to score at the end. But I understood what our guys were ready for coming into the game today. A couple of them said earlier today that they wouldn’t have cared if the game was played outside. They were just excited for the opportunity to compete against them again.”
Seahawks junior small forward Trazarien White led all scorers with 24 points, and Phillips added 16 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists. But UNCW was shut out of the CAA Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2021.
“They just wanted it more tonight,” White said. “I feel like we let one slip away.”
CAA semifinal
No. 5 seed Towson vs. No. 1 seed Charleston
Monday, 6 p.m.
Washington, D.C.
TV: CBS Sports Network