BOSTON, Mass. ? Northeastern showed the Tigers just why it's sitting on top of the Colonial Athletic Association Saturday afternoon when the Huskies opened up a comfortable lead and cruised to a 68-53 win over Towson in Matthews Arena.
The loss dropped Towson to 7-10 overall and 2-3 in the league while the Huskies, picked to finish second in pre-season polls, improved to 10-5 and 5-0 to keep pace with co-leader George Mason. Towson had claimed back-to-back one-point decisions over James Madison and Delaware but since have found the sledding very rough, bowing to George Mason and Northeastern.
The Huskies put the Tigers into a deep hole quickly, jumping off to a 13-0 lead. The Tigers' first points didn't come until six minutes had elapsed in the contest when Troy Franklin drove through a crowd of Huskies for a layup. Not a lot of Towson points followed those, however, as Northeastern built a 21-point lead on 62 per cent shooting. Towson was 6 of 22 in the opening session while the Huskies were 14 of 25. Northeastern assumed a 35-17 lead at the break.
“Northeastern did a great job on us defensively,” said Tigers' coach Pat Kennedy. “They didn't let us run our offense and we panicked.”
Towson played much better in the second half but the deficit was too much to make up. It didn't help either that Franklin fouled out with 18:20 left to play, leaving the Tigers shorthanded in the backcourt.
The Tigers chipped away at Northeastern's lead but never really threatened. Jarrel Smith's three-pointer with 1:38 left in the contest narrowed the gap to 11 at 64-53 but that was as close as Towson would come.
Josh Thornton carried most of the scoring load for the Tigers. He got hot from three-point range in the second half when he scored 16 of his game and career high 25 points. He was six of 10 from beyond the arc for the game and 5 of 6 in the second half.
Smith finished with 17 points. The rest of the Tigers, including starters Franklin and leading scorer Junior Hairston, tallied a combined 11 points. Hairston was held scoreless for the first time in his career at Towson. He shot 0-9 from the field. Franklin was 1 of 6 from the field before fouling out.
“You can't have two starters go 1 for 15 and expect to beat anybody,” Kennedy said.
Northeastern was led by Manny Adako with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Matt Janning added 16.
The Tigers are back in action this Wednesday night when they continue their trek through the top of the CAA standings by hosting Virginia Commonwealth Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in the Towson Center. The game will be carried in the metropolitan Baltimore area on WBAL (1090 AM) Radio.
