The American University women’s basketball team (0-8) lost 89-62 to the Towson Tigers (2-8) at SECU Arena in Towson, Maryland on Dec. 7.
The loss comes at the heels of the Eagles getting swept in the Puerto Rico Classic tournament on the week of Nov. 27.
American’s 62-point total in the game is the third-highest team point total of the season so far. The loss also showed some positive improvements for the young team, such as making free throw shots.
“We’ve been working on our free throws, I’m happy that they’re showing up,” head coach Tiffany Coll said. “[But] I wish we were a little more aggressive getting to the rim to get a little more free throws happening.”
Towson succeeded over American most noticeably in scoring in the paint, with the Tigers achieving a whopping total of 54 points in the paint — compared to only 24 points in the paint from the Eagles.
The game kicked off with the Eagles’ losing the tip-off, but securing a defensive rebound to set up a scoring opportunity that was interrupted by a traveling turnover by freshman guard Molly Driscoll. This turnover let Towson gain possession and score the first points of the game via a layup made in the paint.
With a starting five of junior guard Anna Rescifina, graduate student guard Ivy Bales, junior guard Laura Nogues, freshman guard Driscoll and freshman forward Cecilia Kay, the Eagles gained their first and only lead 2:07 into the game when Driscoll was fouled during a 3-point shot, and she scored all 3 of her free throws. This 5-2 American lead was, however, erased when Towson quickly tied the game with a corner 3-pointer on the next possession.
Turnovers weakened the offensive approach of the Eagles as referees called several traveling violations in the first quarter, and Towson’s vigilant defense forced poor ball handling and passing for a score-dampening combination against American. The score at the end of the first quarter was 25-12.
This scoring pace continued into the second quarter of Tiger dominance. Towson controlled the rebounding to begin the period, not allowing American to score until a Towson turnover 2:12 minutes into the game when Driscoll scored a 2-point jumper.
Towson stomped out any chance of the Eagles’ momentum to build in the second quarter by going on a 9-point scoring run. The Tigers only showed signs of weakness near the end of the quarter, after fouling American shooters to allow Rescifina and Driscoll to succeed at the foul line back-to-back.
Driscoll led American with 10 points at the half, and she would continue to be the team’s leading scorer throughout the rest of the game — despite leaving the game early in the fourth quarter with a cramp.
The Eagles went into halftime 23 points behind with a score of 50-27, with 14 team turnovers at the half compared to Towson’s 4 team turnovers. Additionally, the shot percentage for the Eagles’ in the first half was 20.2 percent lower than the Tigers’ impressive 48.8 percent shot percentage.
The team came out of halftime with a renewed intensity after freshman guard Elizabeth Archer ended the scoring drought for the Eagles with a hook-shot jumper. The two teams went back-and-forth with points after, but American could not chew too deeply into the deficit until a 3-point jumper from Nogues kickstarted a 7-point Eagles’ run in the final 3:15 left in the quarter.
Towson’s missed shots from the line let American stick in the game and lower the point deficit to 19 points by the close of the third quarter.
These comeback dreams were quickly dashed, however, when the Tigers went on another scoring run to open the fourth quarter and American’s turnovers continued to build. Before the Eagles could score 2:24 into the quarter, Driscoll’s aggressiveness on the court backfired when she went down with a leg cramp that ended her game.
Archer and Kay stepped up in scoring in Driscoll’s absence, in addition, freshman guard Madisyn Moore-Nicholsen made both of her free throws to continue American’s positive trend of converting shooting fouls into points on the board.
Ultimately, the Eagles could not gain enough traction to stop committing turnovers and mount a comeback run against Towson’s effective defense and near-unstoppable offense. The final score deficit of 27 was the second-highest point deficit for American this season behind their 104-68 loss to the University of Virginia in their first game of the season on Nov. 4.
The players never gave up during the final minutes of the game in the face of the odds, but Coll said, “We need to have that passion, we need to have that fight in the beginning as well.”
“We’re getting those traveling calls on us, and we’re having some turnovers occur, but we have to have that fight. And we have to be able to say, okay we’re going to make some adjustments. But that doesn’t mean we have to slow down, and we have to keep playing hard,” Coll said.
The Eagles next will return home to play the George Washington Revolutionaries on Dec. 16.
This article was edited by Connor Sturniolo, Penelope Jennings and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Nicole Kariuki and Sabine Kanter-Huchting.
