TOWSON, Md. – Two nonconference games remain for the Towson University women's basketball team, beginning Thursday, Dec. 20 at West Virginia. Thursday's game tips at 7 p.m. in Morgantown, before the team hits the road for another Mountain State opponent at Marshall on Saturday, Dec. 22 at 1 p.m.
Saturday will wrap up the 2018 nonconference slate for Towson and will be the team's last game until Friday, Jan. 4 when conference play opens at Drexel.
The Series: West Virginia leads (4-0)
Thursday's game will be the fifth meeting between Towson and WVU. The Tigers last fell to the Mountaineers at the 2009 Preseason WNIT tournament. The first meeting between the two teams was in the 1978-79 season when West Virginia took a 76-65 win.
The Series: Marshall Leads (1-0)
Marshall and Towson have met just once before, in the 1988-89 season when the Thundering Herd took a 70-49 win.
Last Time Out
The Tigers have won their last two games, over Loyola at home and then Saint Joseph's on the road. Last Monday Towson faced the fourth team out of the Atlantic 10 Conference this season in Philadelphia and came out with a 21-point win. The Tigers were led by
Kionna Jeter who had 19 points and
Nukiya Mayo with 16. Defense was key down the stretch as the road team held the Hawks to just eight points in both the third and fourth quarters.
Scouting the Tigers
Towson's scoring leader remains
Kionna Jeter who is averaging 21.2 points per game while
Nukiya Mayo is scoring 11.6 per game. Mayo leads the team in rebounds with 6.4 per game while
Q. Murray is averaging a team-best 3.6 assists per game. The Tigers are currently seventh in the nation in offensive rebounds, averaging 18.0 per game, and 11th nationally in blocked shots per game with an average of 5.6.
Scouting the Mountaineers
West Virginia enters Thursday's contest with a 7-2 record including a win over ACC foe Pitt and two wins over Eastern Kentucky. The Mountaineers are averaging 78.6 points per game, led by Tynice Martin with 17.7 points per game while three other members of the team are also averaging double figures. Naomi Davenport has also been strong for WVU with a points average of 14.7 and leads the team in rebounds averaging 8.1.
Scouting the Herd
Marshall is currently under .500 with a 5-6 record after falling to Clemson on Tuesday night, 68-54. The Herd have wins over East Tennessee State, Coppin State and Cleveland State to name a few, and have fallen to Appalachian State and Wisconsin. Senior guard Shayna Gore is leading the offense with 19.1 points per game while Taylor Porter is contributing 10.1 per game.
Tiger Strength
Redshirt sophomore
Kionna Jeter continues to lead the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in scoring with her 21.2 points per game. The Spartanburg, South Carolina native is leading the league in steals, second in field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage, ninth in free throw percentage and third in three-point field goals per game. While guard
Q. Murray is fourth in the CAA in assists she is also third in her assist to turnover ratio, a 2.06 ratio, which puts her in the top-100 nationally in the category. Freshman
Janeen Camp is holding onto third in the conference in blocked shots, she averages 1.7 per game and has 15 so far.
Year of the Mountaineer?
Redshirt junior
Q. Murray entered the Towson roster this year, but previously played for Appalachian State where the mascot is a Mountaineer. Head coach
Diane Richardson was an assistant coach at West Virginia before coming to Towson, the year WVU won its first Big 12 Tournament Championship. Towson women's basketball sports information director,
Nicole Curtin, also attended West Virginia for both undergrad and graduate school. It may, or may not be, a coincidence that this year the Tigers have two "Mountaineer" teams on their nonconference schedule, after already facing the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers in November they now see WVU on Thursday.
"There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays"
The song "Country Roads" by John Denver talks about a country road bringing him home, and that is exactly what this trip to a border state of Maryland will be. Following Saturday's game the team will head out to their respective homes for winter break.
Follow the Action
Streaming information for both games can be found on the schedule page at TowsonTigers.com, but be sure to follow @Towson_WBB on Twitter for game day info and to follow along with live tweets during the games.
