The Towson Tigers advance to face VCU in tomorrow’s quarterfinals. Towson was led by John Thornton with 22 points, Tony Durant had 20, and CC Williams had 14. Both Williams and Durant played the final minutes with four fouls.

Hofstra star Antoine Agudio had 27 points, but they came mostly in the second half, too late to help the Pride, which dug itself a large hole early. The Pride was 0 for 7 shooting 3-pointers in the first half, and just 4 of 29 from the field.

Postgame reaction (will update as coaches and athletes enter interview room):

Towson:

Coach Pat Kennedy: I thought we did a tremendous job on the defensive end. Hofstra is one of the more improved teams in the league. Our zone scheme hurt us the first time, and it’s working well for us now. We’re had a lot of success when we play well.

Tomorrow we’ll have to be as aggressive if not more. We can’t have any bad possessions against VCU’s pressure. Their pressure is the reason for their success, you have to fight it in the backcourt, then the halfcourt and again underneath the basket. You have to beat the pressure each of those times.

[On C.C Williams] I was able to put him back in there knowing he wouldn’t get his fifth foul. A year ago that wasn’t true. C.C. is great at the back of that zone, creating steals. We’ve always been a good pressing team, but we only do it in halfcourt because we’re lacking players.

[C.C.‘s award potential] I’m not a big awards guy. To me it’s all about the team. But on the ball, one-on-one, he’s a terrific player.

[On preparing for VCU] They’ve had the chance to see us today. We can only go back to the tapes we have. They’re a guard-oriented team. I love Sanders, but if we take it at him I think we can be successful. We’ll be very loose, I guarantee you that. We’ll be ready to play.

We played pretty well against VCU for 20 minutes, but then at the end of the first half we had three turnovers and they scored on each one. That pressure is non-stop. You have to be so aggressive to be able to beat it.

Guard Josh Thornton: When I transferred in [from Georgetown], I knew this would be a tough conference. You can’t take any game easy.

We came out in the first half with a lot of intensity. I think initially in the second half we came out a little sluggish, but we had to make sure we kept a steady pace with the defense.

I think this gave us a lot of confidence. We know we can play a lot better than our record shows. I think it was good for us to come in here and play with the intensity that we did.

Forward Tony Durant: This is a great league, and there’s a lot of great teams. So coach told us we’d have to work hard from the beginning of the year if we wanted to win in the tournament.

I’m glad we got the win for my teammates and coach. We’re just playing for the tournament right now, we’re not worried about the stats or anything else.

I’ve been trying to work on my speed going to the basket and drawing fouls or making shots.. Coach tells me I’m one of the best post players in the league, but I have to be able to go to the basket.

Hofstra:

Coach Tom Pecora: Antoine [Agudio] is not going to join us. He just finished the last game of his collegiate career and he’s a little upset.

Obviously from the get-go we dug ourself a huge hole. I felt we didn’t have a lot of leadership in the first half.

We were a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde team. We were very well prepared coming in I felt, but we never know if certain players are going to show up. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got some talented players coming in and I’m going to hit the recruiting trail to fill the gaps.

It was a boneheaded decision getting that intentional foul, and that killed a lot of our momentum. I wasn’t comfortable going to the bench late because our bench was very consistent in the first half.

[At halftime] I used a few words you can’t use here. But nothing too much. I wanted to go in and start screaming at guys, but if you need to do that in the CAA Tournament, then this is beyond them getting fired up. I’m tired of hearing my own voice. It’s March. I want to be out there coaching them, not rah-rahing.

[Agudio] He’s had a few games like that this year. He’s a leader and wants to take over the game, but he missed some tough shots. He’s had some of those games this year in our tougher losses.

Posted by Michael Phillips in • College Sports
(0) Comments | Permalink