WILLIAMSBURG, Va. ? The Tigers rid themselves of a six-game losing streak as freshman Troy Franklin scored 18 points to lead Towson to a hard-earned 69-56 Colonial Athletic Association victory over host William & Mary Wednesday night.
The win raised the Tigers to 8-14 overall and 3-7 in the league. It was their first victory since beating Delaware 62-61 in Newark back on January 5th. Towson had dropped six straight league games during that span. The Tribe, which a year ago faced George Mason for the CAA Tournament championship, suffered its sixth straight loss and fell to 6-14, 1-9 in the conference. The loss buried the Tribe deeper into last place.
“I told our guys before the game the first real big key to victory tonight was for us to play hard,” said Tiger coach Pat Kennedy. “We did just that. We kept pressure on the ball. It was one of our better defensive efforts of the season and certainly, it was big road win for us.”
The Tigers forced 22 turnovers with Franklin's four steals showing the way. Franklin also added six assists.
Leading scorer Junior Hairston was on the bench after just seven minutes gone in the opening session with three fouls. That's when Franklin and Jarrel Smith (13 points) picked up the slack for Towson.
Despite their sharpshooting (56.5%) the Tribe couldn't pull far away from the Tigers. W&M did manage an eight-point lead early (14-6) but the Tigers erased it. Eventually the shots began to fall for them too. Smith's three-point play gave the game its first tie at 21-21. Franklin's three-pointer put Towson on top 26-25. From there it was back-and-forth before Franklin's driving layup at the buzzer sent the Tigers into the lockeroom with a 37-36 lead.
It was just the sixth time this year that the Tigers were able to enjoy a lead at the break. They would not surrender it again.
The Tigers slowly added to their lead in the second half and with 5:59 left Towson was up by 11 (59-48). The Tribe's Quinn McDowell (16 points) popped a couple of three-pointers that narrowed the gap to six points (61-55) with 4:19 remaining but Hairston and Franklin answered with two-point field goals to pump the lead back to 10. Robert Nwankwo's two free throws with 15 seconds left ended the scoring and gave the Tigers their biggest lead.
Franklin and Smith were the only Towson players in double figures but nine Tigers scored as Kennedy used all 11 players in the contest.
Danny Summer led the Tribe with 19 points.
The Tigers are back in action this Saturday when they host Drexel in the Towson Center at 4:00 p.m.
