CHARLESTON, S.C. – A 16-point lead early in the second half helped Towson men's basketball hold on to win 62-60 in a game of runs against Bradley Sunday afternoon at TD Arena in the Tigers' final game of the Gildan Charleston Classic.
 
How it Happened

• Several big runs helped the Tigers (2-3) take their largest halftime lead of the Gildan Charleston Classic, 35-24, over Bradley.
• Towson went on a 10-0 run in just 2:24 to take a 21-6 lead over the Braves (1-4). Three different Tigers contributed on the run, including two jumpers from Arnaud William Adala Moto and two free throws, while Byron Hawkins scored four points. Eddie Keith II hit a jumper to spark the run.
• Bradley countered with a run of its own to cut the lead to 23-15 with a 7-2 run. Timajh Parker-River dropped in a mid-range jumper during the Braves' run.
• After a scoring drought of nearly three minutes in the game, both teams traded chances at the end of the half.
• Towson worked the inside, scoring 20 points in the opening half. During the opening half, Towson knocked down five straight attempts during the 10-0 run.
• The Tigers opened the second half with a 6-2 run, building to a 16-point, 42-26 lead. The Braves counted with an 8-2 run in 3:33 before Byron Hawkins canned back-to-back three-pointers, the second coming at 11:56 for a 50-37 Tiger lead.
• Over the next six minutes, Bradley out-scored Towson 12-3, with those three points coming on free throws from Hawkins and John Davis. The Braves used the long drought to pull back within two points, 53-51 Towson with 4:35 to play. Davis broke the drought with a layup at the 4:20 mark.
• The Tigers got clutch free throws from Hawkins down the stretch as the sophomore guard hit five in the final 31 seconds of the game to seal Towson's victory.

 
Behind the Numbers

• Towson pulled down 14 offensive rebounds, converting for 14 second-chance points. Bradley out-rebounded the Tigers 35-33, with the Braves grabbing 23 Towson misses. The Tigers had 19 defensive boards.
• The Tigers shot 45.2 percent (14-of-31) from the floor in the first half, despite missing four three-point chances. Towson shot 30.4 percent (7-of-23) in the second half.
• Towson had just four turnovers in the first half, but 10 miscues in the second half allowed Bradley to score 17 points off of turnovers.
• The Braves shot 44 percent (11-fo-25) from the field in the second half and were aided by 10 made free throws on 11 second half chances.

 
Up Next for the Tigers

• Towson continues its grueling stretch on Wednesday with a game back home at SECU Arena Wednesday night.
• The Tigers take on Gallaudet University with a 2 p.m. game in the 24^th meeting all-time against the Bison.
• Wednesday's game will be the Tigers' fifth contest in a nine-day stretch.

 
Towson Head Coach Pat Skerry
Opening Statement
I thought we played really well for 30 minutes but that last eight minutes… thank God for (Byron) Hawkins bailing us out. I thought we picked up our dribble a lot, and they pressured us, some careless turnovers in transition, gave up some threes. Really, we gotta finish the ball in the red zone. We got a lot of point-blank shots right at the rim that made the game a little bit closer than it should have been. I thought the defense was pretty good. We did a good job guarding. They're a young team, from a top-10 conference and a good win for us. We needed to get a win.
 
On Playing lots of games
This was five games in nine days for us and our guys rallied. We're still a little bit banged up. Still need a little bit more seasoning and I think we have a chance to be a good club. We're going to stay the course. We needed to get a win. We played two BCS teams hard, didn't play as well as we would have liked. … Like any team we need longer stretches of consistent play.
 
On Byron Hawkins
I think Byron is playing at a really high level, which is exciting. He's taken a big step and now if we can get three or four other guys we know are good players getting up to the level they're capable of we're going to be a pretty good club.
 
On Depth
I think we need to build some more depth; get Josh (Ivory) some minutes, Jordan (McNeil) is banged up but he's starting to play better and find some minutes for Alex (Thomas). He's played well when he's been in there. He's going to get more and more minutes as the season goes on.
 
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