CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Tigers' Byron Hawkins had a career day, knocking down 8-of-13 from the field, including 7-of-10 from deep, but Towson fell to Ole Miss 76-60 in the second round of the 2016 Gildan Charleston Classic Friday afternoon.
 
How it Happened

• After a rough shooting day at TD Arena yesterday against Oklahoma State, Towson (1-3) took a 4-2 lead with 17:43 in the first half on a Walter Foster jumper in the paint.
• Ole Miss (3-1) went on a 9-0 run to take an 11-4 lead with Marcanvis Hymon and Stefan Moody accounting for all nine points.
• Hitting nearly 75 percent from the floor in the first half, the Rebels took a 13-point, 21-8 lead at the midway point of the first half on a 10-4 run, hitting four-straight shots.
• The Tigers pulled back within nine on a 10-4 run of their own, but could not hold back Ole Miss for the remainder of the period as the Rebels took a 48-26 lead into the locker room at half.
• Towson slashed the deficit to 11 points with an 11-0 run to open the second half. Hawkins drilled a pair of threes and rolled in a layup to an and-one, while Mike Morsell knocked down a pair of free throws.
• After a Hymon layup, Towson made it a single-digit, 50-42 lead for Ole Miss after Hawkins canned another three-pointer. Hymon and Moody combined with Sebastian Saiz to extend the Ole Miss lead to 18, 62-46 with 9:54 on the clock.
• The two squads traded blows back and forth, but Towson could not cut the lead to single digits for the remainder of the game.

 
Behind the Numbers

• Hawkins finished with a career-high 28 points, eclipsing his previous mark of 23 set at Navy last season (Dec. 22, 2014).
• After shooting 25.0 percent (16-of-64) against Oklahoma State yesterday, Towson responded to hit 38.9 percent (21-54) from the floor on Friday, including 9-of-23 from three-point land (39.1%).
• Hawkins is the third different Tiger to lead Towson's scoring efforts this year, as his 28 points tied a team season-high with Arnaud William Adala Moto in the season opener at La Salle.
• Towson finished with 12 assists, with five coming from Hawkins, while limiting turnovers to just seven. The Tigers capitalized on 13 Rebel miscues, scoring 22 points off of turnovers.
• The Tigers had their best day of the season at the free throw line, knocking down 9-of-10 chances. Hawkins was a perfect 5-for-5 at the line while Morsell and Adala Moto converted both of their attempts.

 
Up Next for the Tigers

• Towson faces the loser of tonight's game between Seton Hall and Bradley, while Ole Miss draws the winner at 3:30 p.m.
• Tipoff for the ninth game of the Gildan Charleston Classic is set for 1:30 p.m. at TD Arena. Ole Miss draws the winner of that game.
• Towson has never faced Seton Hall or Bradley.

 
Towson Head Coach Pat Skerry
Opening Statement
They were ready to play. Give Ole Miss and (head coach) Andy (Kennedy) credit. (Stefan) Moody is a handful. I don't think we were ready to play early, and the rim looks bigger when you have good players. If I look back at both games, the thing that hurt us is, each team has had a couple of guys come off the bench and really have great games. We're not there yet; we challenged them at halftime. I thought most of the guys responded. Two losses that eventually define you, so hopefully we learn from it.
 
On Byron Hawkins' Day
He's talented, he's made a big jump and as we get into our league (CAA), he's going to be a key guy for us. He's really playing well. He takes care of the ball, and obviously he can really score, but I think he's also guarding harder and that's encouraging.
 
On Moving Forward
I think we might make a change to the lineup, we've been going with three forwards together and had so many injuries, I don't know how much longer we do that, if at all.
 
- TowsonTigers.com -