TOWSON, Md. - RaShawn Polk and Isaiah Philmore erupted for career highs as the Tigers held off a pesky Coppin State five for an 89-74 victory in the Tigers' home opener Tuesday night.
The Tigers (1-1) broke to the front early and never looked back although Coppin (0-2) rallied from a 25-point deficit to cut Towson's lead to six before another scoring burst allowed the hosts to win going away.
"We know we've got some tremendous scoring weapons, speed and quickness and we can rebound," said Tiger head coach Pat Kennedy. "We needed to rebound to win. We needed to hit the foul shots to win."
Towson outrebounded the Eagles 46 to 31 with Braxton Dupree and Brian Morris collecting career highs with 14 and 11 boards respectively. The Tigers were 22 of 29 from the charity stripe.
The real story was the play of Polk and Philmore. Polk pumped in a career high 29 points, scoring 21 in the first half. Philmore tallied 17 of his career high 21 in the second half including six straight points that ended a Coppin run that brought the Eagles to within six.
"In the second half there were about five minutes where we were really undisciplined," Kennedy said. "We took bad shots, got out of our defensive pressure. It's hard to press like that for 40 minutes."
Michael Harper scored the game's first points. Polk then answered with three straight treys and two free throws to send the Tigers on their way. Two Philmore free throws gave the Tigers a double digit lead (17-6) at the 12:48 mark. Towson went on to a 45-28 halftime lead.
Four minutes into the second half Polk's layup put Towson on top by its biggest margin of 25 points (60-35). But Coppin rallied, using a 15-1 run that started to melt the Tigers' commanding lead. With 6:46 left the rally had trimmed all the fat out of Towson's lead and cut it to a lean 72-66. Philmore took charge from there, lifting the Tigers to a more comfortable atmosphere with six straight points. Polk added a three-point basket as the Tigers went back up by 15 with 3:26 remaining.
Polk was 10 of 16 from the field including a 4-5 effort from beyond the arc. Philmore was 8 of 10 from the field and added 8 rebounds. Towson shot 51 per cent from the floor for the game and was 9 of 19 from three-point land.
Troy Franklin chipped in with 16 points and 4 steals before leaving the game with a cramp. Freshman Dre Conner came on in relief of Franklin, going 5 of 6 from the foul line down the stretch.
In addition to his career high 11 rebounds, Morris dished out a game high 6 assists.
The 89 points were the most in a home opener (5th win in a row) since the Tigers beat Lehigh 99-97 in 1991.
Towson is back on the court again this Saturday night when they travel to Buffalo to take on the Mid-American Conference Bulls. Opening tip is scheduled for 7:00. The game will be carried back to Towson on WTMD (89.7 FM) radio.
