There might have been no better time to appreciate the Towson men's basketball team's soul-crushing defense Wednesday night than early in the second half, when another Loyola Maryland turnover queued up a highlight on the SECU Arena scoreboard.

A possession earlier, Tigers sophomore guard Deshaun Morman had driven inside, drawing a defender away from senior forward Arnaud William Adala Moto. Adala Moto burst to the rim as a baseline bounce pass met him halfway there. He leaped off two feet, his legs scissoring as his tomahawking right arm put ball through hoop. The crowd cheered loudly, the Greyhounds got the ball back for another never-gonna-happen possession, and less than 30 seconds later, Towson's pressure had treated the announced 1,214 to an encore of the highlight overhead.

With their 70-53 win, the Tigers (5-4) secured their seventh straight victory over a Baltimore-area school, a stranglehold on local supremacy that feels as tight as their man-to-man defense was for much of Wednesday night. Loyola (4-5) shot 32.7 percent from the field and had two turnovers for every assist. Its two leading scorers went a combined 8-for-24.

“For the first 27, 28 minutes of the game, we played really good,” Towson coach Pat Skerry said. “We guarded at a high level. … I think for the most part, we came out and did what we were supposed to do. Especially defensively, I thought we were dominant.”

Towson junior guard Mike Morsell led all scorers with 21 points on just eight field-goal attempts. He was one of four Tigers in double figures.

Senior forward Jarred Jones (John Carroll) finished with 13 points for the Greyhounds, who were facing their local foes for the 73rd time.

They were indeed well acquainted: Towson junior guard Eddie Keith II said before the game that the teams shop at the same mall and go to the same movie theater. On Wednesday night, it was as if the Tigers defense shared Loyola's offensive playbook as well.

Loyola's first shot was an air ball. After Andre Walker's 3-pointer cut Towson's early lead to 11-9, the Greyhounds went 4:34 without a point. The Tigers had a double-digit lead less than 12 minutes in.

Loyola's last of six first-half field goals — Towson had 15 — came with 7:23 remaining. The Greyhounds ended the half missing their final 10 attempts from the field and five of seven free throws. They ended the half with a 24-point deficit, 41-17, their worst scoring output of the season by seven points. They ended the half watching Towson sophomore forward John Davis hit an open 3-pointer after a timeout by Skerry that kept Loyola from its locker room for just a little bit longer.

“He doesn't give too many compliments on the floor,” Morsell said of Skerry. “Just: ‘Keep it up.'?”

They could not, and Loyola coach G.G. Smith, who said his Greyhounds “just weren't able to get anything going,” finally got something going. They started to score, which meant they could press, which meant they could force turnovers, and so they scored more easily.

A 57-30 deficit was transformed, quite remarkably, to 60-49. Indeed, Loyola won the second half, 36-29.

“I think we have a chance to become a really good team,” Skerry said. “Now we've got to get more consistent to do that, but we're going to do with it our defense.”

jshaffer@baltsun.com

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