Whole team contributes in Towson's win over Niagara

By Pete Lorenz The Towerlight

December 10, 2007

Towson, MD (CSTV U-WIRE) -- Sophomore Rodney Spruill scored 18 points, all after halftime, as the Tigers downed the visiting Purple Eagles (4-3), 75-72, in overtime at the Towson Center Sunday.

Senior C.C. Williams put up a career-high 20 points and Junior Hairston racked up 21 rebounds and 13 points in a win that brought the Tigers one game closer to getting back to .500 on the season. Niagara led the entire game until Spruill dropped in one of his free throws at the 2:49 mark of the second half to give Towson a 65-64 advantage.

Niagara senior forward Charron Fisher helped the Eagles gain an early lead with a dazzling 14-point first half, and sophomore Tyrone Lewis added three steals and five points. Fisher finished with 31 points and 12 rebounds. Towson showed resilience after struggling thorough a first half in which the Tigers benefited from the Eagles' inability to make easy baskets from the paint. Towson, though, made just two of nine 3-point attempts in the opening half, and a fierce Niagara press forced nine Tiger turnovers before the break.

"That's what they do. They do a very good job of that," head coach Pat Kennedy said. "They play the way they play. They press and they run and they score."

The Tigers wore down the Eagles' press in the second half, but their 3-point shooting only got worse. Towson missed every one of its shots from beyond the arc after the break, dropping them to 2-22 3-point shooting for a dismal 9.1 shooting percentage.

"Well, we haven't shot well from the 3-point range all year long," Kennedy said. "That's our worst statistic."

Besides the poor shooting and turnover ratio, the Tigers found some success early in the game on the boards, as Junior Hairston tied a season high with 21 rebounds and recorded his seventh double-double in nine games this season.

The Tigers tied the game up twice, at 43 and at 54, before they finally knotted it at 64 preceding Spruill's go-ahead foul shot. Spruill followed that with a 2-point basket on a drive through the lane; he was fouled, and he converted the shot to hand the Tigers a four-point lead.

But junior Tim Crossin, usually a sharp-shooting specialist, failed to convert a pair of threes in the closing minutes after gaining the lead.

"At the end it was just unbelievable," Kennedy said. "I think the accent to having a tough year shooting threes was Timmy [Crossin] missing a wide open shot twice. He nails either one of those and probably the game's over."

Fisher was fouled twice down the stretch, allowing him to knock down free throws to tie the game, but Towson was not finished. Kennedy took a 30-second timeout, and Towson inbounded the ball ready to take the clock all the way down to zero before scoring, but Niagara's defense held tight, and Spruill was forced to take the only shot he thought he could get.

The ball shot off the back of the rim into the hands of Hairston, who drained the apparent game-winner, but the referees waived it off; Hairston had waited a split-second too long to release the shot, and the game went into overtime.

Spruill took over in the extra period, knocking down Towson's only two field goals and scoring all seven of the team's overtime points. Spruill ran through the Purple Eagle defense, nailing two bank shots over the Niagara defense, a marked difference from his lack of impact in the first half.