Towson loses a heartbreaker to Hofstra at home
On Wednesday, the Towson Tigers (12-5, 2-2), coming into the game on a 14-game home winning streak, faced off against the Hofstra Pride (9-7, 2-2) in a CAA Conference game at the SECU Arena.
The first half of this contest was pretty close. Tied throughout, Zane Martin found ways to knife through the Pride’s defense a few times for lay ups. The Tigers took an early lead with defense, but a four point play gave the Pride some momentum.
For a 2 minute stretch before the final media time-out, both teams failed to score a basket deadlocked at 30. The Tigers outscored the Pride 13-8 to end the first half. Justin Gorham lead the way in the half with 12 points and Zane Martin followed up with 11. The Tigers shot 62% from the field, but only 33% from 3-point range.
The Tigers started off the second half by pushing the pace. Mike Morsell caught the Pride sleep and snuck in with an easy lay up to push the lead to 7. Justin Gorham then drove through the defense for a dunk to push the lead up again.
Eddie Keith came up with a big block on defense, but the Tigers lost possession due to an offensive foul right before a media timeout at 11:30. Both teams went on a scoring drought until the Pride found themselves in the bonus due to foul trouble. The Tigers found themselves up by 10 before Rokas Gustys and Justin Wright-Foreman helped bring the Pride back.
Stafford Trueheart tied the game up with a 3-pointer with 1:57 left in the game. Justin Gorham took the next possession in with a lay up for two points and the foul that lead to Gustys exiting the game with 5 fouls, but he missed the lay up. Wright-Foreman came down and repeated Gorham with a lay up for an and-one and he connected with the free throw for a 1-point lead.
Zane Martin scored on a jumper to take the lead back with about a miniute left, 71-70, but then he missed two free throws after to ice the game. Brian Starr came through with two free throws to push the lead to 3. But Wright-Foreman once again proved that wasn’t enough as he hit a 3-pointer with :17 seconds left to tie the game at 73.
After a Brian Starr air ball from 3, Jalen Ray hit a 3-pointer as time expired to take the ballgame, 76-73. The Tigers lead for majority of the game, over 27 minutes, and this loss snapped their 14-game home winning streak. The Tigers fall to 12-6, 2-3 in conference play. Justin Gorham finished the game with a career high 20 points on 7-7 shooting. Zane Martin finished with 17 points. Mike Morsell played 18 minutes, but didn’t play in the second half. This game featured 12 ties and 9 lead changes but the biggest lead change was the one at the final buzzer.
The Tigers face off against Drexel in their next game on January 18th.
