TOWSON, Md. – A moment many have been waiting for, the return of sports, is upon us as the Towson University women's basketball team hosts East Carolina tomorrow afternoon at SECU Arena.
Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on FloSports.com, with live audio from
Ben Rosenbaum and Rashad Christian on the Towson Sports Network. All streaming links can be found on the women's basketball schedule page on TowsonTigers.com.
LAST TIME OUT
It's been 262 days, almost nine months, 37 weeks since Towson has played an official basketball game. The Tigers haven't seen the court for a game since March 7th, a 68-52 loss to Elon on the road. Against the Phoenix in the regular season finale, Towson was led by
Q. Murray with 13 points and
Kionna Jeter with 12, while
Nukiya Mayo scored nine points and grabbed 13 rebounds. The Tigers led at the end of the first quarter, 15-12, and the roles were reversed in the second as Elon outscored the road team 17-12, leading 29-27 entering the half. Towson never caught up in the third quarter, the Phoenix taking a 13-point lead with 5:06 to go in the period, and seeing the home team go on to take the win.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
After the abrupt ending to the season, the Tigers lost several key pieces to graduation in the spring.
Kionna Jeter returns for her final season of eligibility after leading Towson in scoring with 18.1 points per game in 2019-20. Jeter is joined by returners
LaKaitlin Wright and
Tess Borgosz, who split starting roles last season and were fifth and sixth in rebounding respectively.
Shavonne Smith will also be on the court for her junior season, she saw one start last season, but appeared in 27 games averaging 15.5 minutes a game with 3.9 points on average. Several new faces are on the roster this year with the additions of
Allie Kubek,
Skye Williams,
Aleah Nelson,
Narrie Dodson,
Kiara Johnson and
Tarriyonna Gary. Gary and Kubek are the two true freshmen on the squad, hailing from Florida and Delaware respectively, while Dodson, Johnson, Nelson and Williams all transferred to Towson for this year.
SCOUTING THE PIRATES
East Carolina finished the 2019-20 season with a 9-21 overall record and 6-10 in the American Athletic Conference. The Pirates ranked second in the nation in steals, steals per game and turnovers forced and were third in turnover margin. ECU's leading scorer, Lashonda Monk, returns after averaging 14.9 points per game and winning the AAC Defensive Player of the Year and earning an All-AAC Second Team selection. Sophomore Taniyah Thompson will be a key returner for the Pirates as well after earning a unanimous selection to the All-AAC Freshman Team; she averaged 13.7 points per game last season. All five starters for ECU are back and there are five newcomers in four freshman and a transfer from Charlotte.
ECU SERIES: PIRATES LEAD 1-0
This will be the second meeting in series history between the Tigers and ECU. Back on Nov. 28, 2009, Towson traveled to Greenville, North Carolina and fell 65-48 to ECU as part of the Lady Pirate Invitational.
JETER TAKES CAA PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Redshirt-senior
Kionna Jeter announced her return to Towson for the final year of her eligibility in the summer and has since been named the CAA Preseason Player of the Year. Jeter led the Tigers in scoring last season with 18.1 points per game and also grabbed 3.3 steals a night, leading the Colonial Athletic Conference. She finished the season with All-CAA First Team and CAA All-Defensive Team honors after reaching the 1,000-point mark about halfway through the season. Jeter is the fastest player in program history to score 1,000 points and she was second in the conference in points per game last season. She was also selected to the Preseason Watch List for the 2021 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award.
LOOKING AHEAD
Towson is scheduled to host Howard this Saturday, Nov. 28 at 2 p.m. in SECU Arena to wrap up the first week of action. The first road trip on the calendar for the Tigers is slated for next Thursday, Dec. 3 at Maryland and then they will continue further south to Farmville, Virginia for a road game at Longwood, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5. Games are all subject to change, please continue checking the women's basketball schedule page for updated information.
