Whenever things settled down on the Towson bench during Thursday night’s comfortable 85-66 win over Elon at SECU Arena, senior John Davis loomed over everyone in his bright white shirt from the stool he’ll be relegated to for the rest of the season.

The senior captain, who coach Pat Skerry said has been invaluable to his streaking Tigers, won’t play again this season after he was shot in the leg outside his Philadelphia home last weekend. But Skerry, with Davis always over his shoulder, watched his balanced and tight-knit team begin life without him in impressive fashion.

Junior Mike Morsell tied a season high with 32 points to lead all scorers, and a new-look rotation without Davis’ consistent presence in the paint provided plenty to give Towson (18-10, 10-5 Colonial Athletic Association) a win, its fifth in a row, in its penultimate home game of the season.

“This has been really hard,” Skerry said. “It’s been a hard week. John means a lot, and it’s just been a long week. I didn’t know how they were going to respond. I know we wanted to win for John. We tried to preach that the best way to play for John is to be the best version of yourself. No one can be John, but Zane [Martin] can be Zane, [Arnaud] William [Adala Moto] can be William, and Mike can be Mike, and so on. If you’re the best version of yourself, we’ll be fine.”

In collecting its 10th win in 11 games, Skerry’s team proved him right. Morsell joined the school’s 1,000-point club early in the first half. Adala Moto, the team’s lone remaining senior, overcame a slow start to score all nine of his points in the second half to go with a game-high eight rebounds. And Martin, a freshman from the same high school as Davis, added a dozen points in honor of the player he said is more than a teammate.

“That’s like my big brother out there,” Martin said. “So I took all the anger that I had and locked in, because I knew as a team we were going to have to be 100, so I made sure we didn’t have no flaws at all coming into this game.”

The Tigers hadn’t been in action since Saturday’s win at Drexel, but their status as the CAA’s hottest team meant little in the ensuing five days.

Davis, who this week Skerry credited for joining the program at its lowest point and being a steadying presence throughout its growth over the years, not to mention pulling the team together after its 0-4 conference start this year, remained in Philadelphia on Saturday night after the Drexel win for a family event. He was shot in an alleged drive-by shooting in front of his home.

Towson said the following day that his injuries were minor, and he returned to campus Tuesday, the same day Skerry announced the senior’s Towson career was finished.

His teammates carried him in their hearts as they prepared for Elon, and wore his No. 10 on the “JD” Under Armour shirts made for this occasion.

Davis remained out of sight in SECU Arena until moments before the game, when he took his spot on a stool beside where Skerry would occasionally sit. During the introductions and national anthem, he tried to keep weight off his right leg, wobbling until someone finally brought him his crutches.

Then the game began, and the task of maintaining the groove Towson has found over the past month with Davis continued without him.

Just as he has all season, Morsell figured prominently in that equation. He led Towson with 11 points at halftime, and kept Elon at bay throughout the second half before exploding for 13 points in the last four minutes to help the Tigers to a 19-point win.

“That’s what we needed,” Skerry said. “He dominated the game. He’s on a whole different level. It’s not surprising. We’ve seen it. We know it.”

Said Morsell: “It was definitely tough not having [Davis]. I’ve been playing with him for two or three years now, so it was definitely weird him not coming out. But you’ve just got to focus on the game.”

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