RICHMOND, Va. - The 11th-seeded Tigers rallied from an early second half deficit to overcome Northeastern in the waning moments and claim a 58-54 upset quarterfinal victory over the 3rd-seeded Huskies Saturday night in the Richmond Coliseum that earned Towson its first Colonial Athletic Association tournament semifinal berth. The Tigers will face 2nd-seeded and defending champion George Mason Sunday evening at 5:30 p.m. The winner of that contest will advance to Monday night's championship.
The Tigers, who became the lowest seed in the history of the CAA basketball tournament to make it to the semifinals, improved to 12-21 with the victory. The loss ended Northeastern's campaign at 18-12.
“Obviously I'm very proud of our guys,” said Tiger head coach Pat Kennedy. “We maintained ourselves down the stretch, we took care of the ball and we made a lot of defensive plays.”
The Tigers advanced to Saturday's quarterfinal after upsetting 6th-seeded Drexel 73-62 on Friday night in a first round contest. The Tigers used a big first half, leading by as many as 26 points, en route to dispatching the Dragons. Towson wasn't as sharp against Northeastern in the first session but the Tigers still managed a seven-point lead over the Huskies, shooting 52 per cent along the way. They would finish shooting 49 per cent for the game.
Northeastern jumped off to a 4-0 lead but back-to-back three-pointers by Brian Morris and Junior Hairston helped the Tigers grab the lead. Towson held it through the half. Tony Durant completed a three-point play with 9.7 seconds left to cap an 8-1 run that sent the Tigers into the lockeroom with the 32-25 advantage. It was to be their biggest lead of the game.
The Huskies got off on a 14-2 run to start the second half. Towson's lead evaporated quickly as Northeastern went up by five, 39-34 at the 13:58 mark. That was to be the Huskies' largest lead of the contest.
Towson slowly chipped away at Northeastern's modest lead. Back-to-back treys by Hairston and Josh Thornton enabled Towson to catch and pass the Huskies for a 50-48 lead with 5:45 remaining. Nkem Ojougboh's put back for Northeastern knotted the score at 50-50.
The Tigers then went up by four on a pair of monster slam dunks by Robert Nwankwo and Hairston. Morris canned two free throws with 36.4 seconds remaining for a six-point Towson lead.
Chaisson Allen put the Huskies right back into the game with a three-pointer with 19 ticks left to add to the drama. With 4.6 seconds left the Tigers fouled Baptiste Bataille on a three-point try. Baptiste missed the first of three free throws, made the second and missed the third. Nwankwo was fouled on the rebound and with aplomb hit both of his foul shots to end the scoring with 3.4 seconds remaining and preserve the victory.
Hairston paced the Tigers with 14 points. Freshman guard Troy Franklin added 13 points and four assists.
Towson had no answer for Northeastern's Manny Adako who led all scorers with 23 points. Defensively the Tigers shut down the Huskies' high scoring backcourt, first team All-CAA guard Matt Janning and Allen, an All-CAA Defensive Team selection. The pair was held to 15 points on combined shooting of 5 for 25 from the field.
The Tigers will be facing George Mason for a third time this season. The Patriots won both previous regular season encounters by the identical score of 71-59. The Patriots have won 14 straight against the Tigers. George Mason is the only CAA school the Tigers have not beaten since joining the league eight years ago.
'We had another great defensive effort," said Kennedy. "This is fun. We're having a great time and we want to keep on playing."
