Men's basketball advances to CAA championship game
Heading to the championship Led by Coach Tony Shaver, the Tribe men's basketball team will play in the CAA championship game Monday night in Baltimore, Md. Here, Shaver celebrates after the Tribe won the quarterfinal game against Charleston Saturday. Photo courtesy of Tribe Athletics
Jump shot Junior Marcus Thornton knocks down a jumper for two of his team-high 16 points in the quarterfinal game against Charleston. Photo courtesy of Tribe Athletics
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Junior guard Marcus Thornton led all scorers and four Tribe players in double-digits with 21 points on 7-of-13 from the floor to go with three assists and three steals. Senior guard Brandon Britt poured in 16 points for the second-straight night, hitting on 6-of-10 from the field and an impressive 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Senior Kyle Gaillard was masterful on both ends of the court, finishing with 12 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and blocking a career-high three shots. Senior Tim Rusthoven finished with 10 points on 4-of-6 from the field.
The Green and Gold led by five, 71-66, with 3:47 remaining following a Gaillard offensive putback. Towson pulled to within one point on a Rafriel Guthrie 3-pointer and a 1-of-2 effort from the charity stripe by Timajh Parker-Rivera. His freebie with 2:40 left closed the gap to 71-70.
On the ensuing Tribe possession, Thornton canned a huge step-back jumper from the right side to push the margin back to three. Guthrie drilled 1-of-2 from the free throw line with 2:05 left to cut the Green and Gold lead to 73-71.
Towson had a chance to tie, but CAA Player of the Year Jerrelle Benimon was whistle for a travel at the 1:15 mark. W&M worked the shot clock on the ensuing possession, before the Tigers were whistled for a foul with 45 seconds remaining and a fresh 35 on the shot clock. A Brandon Britt 3-point attempt with 22 seconds left was off the mark, and Guthrie threw a length of the court pass toward Marcus Damas, who was initial ruled to have stepped on the baseline. After an official review, the play was overturned and went to the possession arrow, giving Towson the ball with 18.1 seconds left trailing by two, 73-71.
The Tigers went to Benimon, but as he drove the right side of the lane, Thornton and Tarpey converged to ripped the ball away. It was ruled out of bounds off Towson, giving the Tribe possession with 5.5 seconds remaining. Senior Julian Boatner inbounded the ball to a cutting Thornton, who was fouled, and the Upper Marlboro, Md., native hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to give W&M a 75-71 lead and cement the victory.
The Tribe finished the game shooting 55.1 percent from the field (27-of-49), including an 11-of-22 effort from 3-point range. The Green and Gold also connected on 10-of-14 (71.4 percent) from the charity stripe. Towson shot 50 percent (25-of-50) from the field and was 7-of-14 from 3-point range. One day after setting a CAA Tournament record going 39-of-61 from the free throw line against James Madison, the Tigers were 14-of-20 on Sunday afternoon against the Tribe.
The opening 20 minutes was back and forth with each team responding to the other. W&M scored the opening five points of the contest on a Britt 3-pointer and a lay-up from Rusthoven off a cutting pass from Tarpey. Towson responded with six straight and a Burwell free throw just over three minutes into the contest gave the Tigers a 6-5 advantage.
The teams traded buckets, before a Prewitt free throw at the 13:38 mark tied the game at 11. Burwell’s second triple of the game from the right corner gave the Tigers a 17-13 advantage with 11 mintues left in the opening frame.
The Green and Gold ripped off seven straight points to surge back in front. Thornton knocked down two jumpers, including a 3-pointer, around a Tarpey steal and fastbreak lay-up to give the Tribe a 20-17 lead.
Towson’s Timajh Parker-Rivera tied things up at 20 on a conventional 3-point play at the 8:51 mark. The teams again traded buckets, before the Tigers scored six straight to take its largest lead of the game. Burwell scored four points on the run, including a pair of free throws with two and a half minutes left in the half to give TU a 35-29 lead.
W&M again answered this time with back-to-back 3-pointers. Boatner knocked one down from the left corner, before Thornton drilled one from the top of the key. The Tribe junior guard was fouled on the play and finished the unconventional four-point play to give W&M a 36-35 lead with 1:18 left. A Parker-Rivera free throw in the closing seconds tied things at 36, and the game entered the final 20 minutes all locked up.
The Tribe started the second half on fire, hitting seven of its first nine field goal attempts in opening up as much as an eight-point advantage. The lead was 52-45 following a driving lay-up from Gaillard at the 13:46 mark. Britt and Thornton led the early second-half spark, scoring 11 of the Tribe’s first 14 points in the second 20 minutes.
The lead remained seven after a Rusthoven jump hook at the 12:29 mark, before Benimon closed Towson to within three points. He canned a fade-away jumper from the left baseline, before hitting a pair of free throw to slice the deficit to 54-51 with 11:21 left.
Like they had for the majority of the first half, the teams traded big bucket after big bucket. A Gaillard 3-pointer from the left side midway through the half put the Tribe on top 59-54, but the Tigers answered behind four straight Guthrie points to close to 59-58 at the 7:11 mark.
Freshman Omar Prewitt banked in a 3-pointer from the right wing less than 40 seconds later to push the margin back to four, 62-58. A Britt triple with less than six minutes remaining extended the margin to 65-60. The lead remained five, 69-64, on a nice cutting pass from Prewitt to Rusthoven for a lay-up at the 4:40 mark, before Towson made its final charge.
Tarpey turned in an all-around stat line with seven points, three rebounds, four assists, a blocked shot and the game-clinching steal. Prewitt and sophomore Sean Sheldon led the Tribe with four rebounds apiece, and Prewitt shared team-high assist honor with four. Gaillard also came up big on the defensive end adding a pair of drawn charges to his three blocked shots.
Benimon led Towson with 18 points on 7-of-13 from the field, but pulled down just five rebounds. Both Gaillard and Tarpey did a good job on the nation’s leading double-double player, forcing him into six turnovers and only sending him to the free throw line twice. Mike Burwell chipped in 17 points and Guthrie added 13.
The Tribe will face top-seeded Delaware in the CAA Championship game on Monday night in Baltimore. Tip-off is schedule for 7 p.m. from the Baltimore Arena and the game will be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network with Mike Corey and Ron Thompson on the call. The 2013-14 team joins the 2007-08 and 2009-10 teams in making the CAA Championship game and will look for the programs first conference title. Tickets are still available for Monday night's CAA Championship game by visit Ticketmaster.com.
Tribe fans can listen to the broadcast on the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM are the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network and the audio feed can be heard over the Internet at TribeAthletics.com.
