Tigers beat JMU for sixth-straight victory

Towson seniors Arnaud William Adala Moto (left) and John Davis (right) pose with head coach Pat Skerry during the Tigers’ pregame senior ceremony.

Very few teams in the country are as red hot as the Towson Tigers men’s basketball team is right now. On Senior Day the Tigers teamed their sixth-straight win and 11th in 12 games as they beat the visiting James Madison Dukes 75-65 at SECU Arena on Saturday night.

Towson seniors Arnaud William Adala Moto and John Davis were recognized during a pregame ceremony and received the customary framed black uniforms with their numbers on them. The win was a bit more significant for Davis as he has now experienced more Division I victories than any player in school history with 76 during the program’s winningest four-year run at the highest collegiate level.

“It’s been a long four years. I’m happy I could do it with these guys right here, always in my corner,” Davis said with particular emotion as while he was unable to play in the game he felt particularly “blessed” to be able to be with his teammates after being grazed by a bullet last week in a drive-by shooting.

Moto finished the game with 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

But leading it was junior Mike Morsell, who has been the red-hot driving force behind the team in their late-season run. He nailed three 3-pointers in a 19-point effort. And despite the Tigers being without both Davis and sophomore forward Alex Thomas, Morsell’s outside presence helped spread out the Dukes defense and created extra room for the Tigers to get more offensive rebounds than their opponents. Towson once again beat their opponents on the glass in a victory, which helped to give them the second-chance points edge too.

Towson would only have a few one-point leads throughout the first 16 minutes of the game as the Dukes were able to effectively hit their first six shots of the game and made over half of their shots as they took a 22-18 lead on a 3-pointer by Shakir Brown.

Towson wasn’t struggling by any means, but a steal and a fast-break layup by Deshaun Morman and another jumper by him just a few seconds later tied the game. They in response to a Paulius Satkus layup, Towson went on a 12 point run to get ahead by 10 points in a hurry.

Morsell scored 10 of those points, including back-to-back 3-pointers at the end of it.

Stakus hit a jumper in the paint with 64 seconds left in the half to end the Tigers run, but Zane Martin, who finished the game second on the team with 16 points, hit a triple with just three seconds left to secure a 37-26 halftime lead for the hosts.

After scoring the first six points of the second half, Towson built their lead up to 17 points.

The Dukes had on run left in them in the latter portion of the second half. A jumper by Morman put Towson up 59-45. The Dukes responded with nine points in a row, helped by two made 3-pointers bu Dimitrije Cabarkapa.

But Brian Starr ended the run with a jumper and another 3-pointer by Martin put Towson back up by 10 points with 4:58 left in the game.

After that 3-pointer by Martin Towson scored their final 11 points all at the foul line to keep ahead of the Dukes. Their defense held JMU to 4-for-13 from the floor in the final five minutes of the game.

Morman was the fourth Tigers to reach double-digits in scoring, finishing with 12 points in the game. Towson made half of their shots in the game.

Towson will play their final two regular season games on the road, beginning at UNC Wilmington on Thursday night before playing at William & Mary on Saturday.

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Corey Johns

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You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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