Men Eek Out Win Over Towson

Sports — By Ash McDaniel on December 13, 2009 at 1:20 am

(All Photos by Jordan Teller, Daily Colonial Basketball Photographer)

With 27 seconds left, sophomore Tony Taylor’s jumper broke a tie and secured a Colonials victory over Towson, 73-69.

“The [coaches] just put the ball in my hands and trusted me to make the right decision in the end,” Taylor said. “I was just looking for the right shot. We needed this one.”

Men’s basketball Head Coach Karl Hobbs said Taylor is the guy they wanted in that clutch position in Saturday’s down to the wire win.

“That was a big shot by Tony,” Hobbs said. “It was great that he came back from missing the free throws, and hit the big shot, which turned out to be the game winning shot.”

The Tigers had continued to chomp at the Colonials heels in the final minutes as Towson’s senior Josh Thornton tied up the game with a three point shot with 1:02 left to play.

Taylor’s jumper won the game, but the Tigers’ hopes of a comeback were stopped when freshman Bryan Bynes stepped up down court.

“The play that really was big for us was from young Bryan having the will to stay on his feet,” Hobbs said. “He maintained his poise and held his ground, and it was terrific defensive play by Bryan.”

Though the lead slipped away from the Colonials, GW’s early scoring boosted them to a prefect 3-0 road record in this young season.

After a high scoring shootout against Providence, the Colonials offense returned back to “its usual play” according to Hobbs.

“This was more in our range from scoring,” Hobbs said when comparing this game to the 97 point display verse Providence. “But we missed some free throws and in some fast break situations we need to work on that.”

The Colonials offense ignited in the middle of the second half with a small scoring stretch beginning with a Bynes three pointer from the top of the key and an impressive alley-oop from the freshmen duo of Lasan Kromah to Tim Johnson. Johnson tied his career high with 12 points.

Senior Damian Hollis led the team with 13 points, going 4-4 from the field and sinking five of his six free throws.

The Colonials were unable to defend the Tigers from beyond the arc, allowing 10 three-point shots more than two over Towson’s season average of 7.7 per game.

“That’s something we really have to work on. We said in the huddle ‘the only way these guys can get back in the game is by making threes,’” Hobbs said. “The snake’s bitten us twice, and we were lucky that we got it back today.”

Redshirt sophomore Jabari Edwards was absent from the game with knee issues, though Hobbs would not comment further other than saying that he hopes it’s a “short term thing.”

The Colonials next game against East Carolina on Tuesday will be their second of four straight road games. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Tags: game recap, men's basketball, Towson