BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Shniece Perry, Towson University's do-everything strong forward, has a wide array of basketball skills.
She scores, she rebounds, she passes, and she intimidates.
Yesterday, in the wake of the seventh-seeded Tigers' 87-67 America East tournament first-round win against No. 10 Boston University, she adopted a new role.
Pundit.
"Basketball is a game of runs," she said in the post-game news conference. Which described the game of wild swings, which later became a 20-point walkaway, to a T.
It explains how the Tigers, who will face second-seeded Northeastern in today's second round at the University of Vermont, frittered away all of one double-digit lead in the first half, and most of another in the second. They scored points by the fistful, and they gave them up in the same fashion.
It also explains how Towson finally locked up the result with a 57-point second-half performance.
Perry, who earlier in the day was named to the all-conference third team, provided the Tigers with plenty of punch at both ends of the floor.
The junior from Red Bank, N.J., scored 16 points, hauled down 16 rebounds (tying the league playoff record), and dished out four assists. Perry was dominant in the first half, when she sparked Towson to an 11-0 run, giving it a seemingly comfortable 27-16 lead. Coincidentally, when Perry was rested late in the half, the Terriers took advantage, whittling the lead to four, 30-26.
"She does a lot of things well," said Towson coach Ellen Fitzkee, "but we rely on her as a defensive stopper. She has a way of making everybody better, and when she's not in there, we sometimes suffer."
Just after intermission, BU's Alison Dixon flipped in two of her game-high 22 to tie the score at 30. But the Tigers, backed by the hot long-distance shooting from Mylisa Pilione (20 points) quickly built another big lead, 52-41.
But even that proved to be tenuous, when Dixon led the Terriers on a 9-2 run, bringing them to within 54-50 with 10 minutes to play.
The Tigers finally sealed the result, when they outran Boston 33-17 down the stretch.
"We knew that Boston was going to come back at us," said Perry. "And every time they did, we just had to step it up."
BOSTON U. -- Dixon 9-23 3-6 22, Nicholls 4-9 3-3 12, LaPlante 1-2 0-0 3, Millett 1-7 0-0 2, Wagner 0-4 0-0 0, Tulley 2-6 2-5 6, Prassas 2-6 0-0 5, Dufault 5-10 2-2 12, Powers 2-3 1-2 5. Totals 26-70 11-18 67.
TOWSON -- Jones 4-9 0-2 8, Lanigan 2-7 4-6 8, Pilione 6-12 4-4 20, Perry 6-14 4-7 16, Gordon 7-10 1-2 15, Wright 1-2 1-1 3, Simpson 0-3 2-2 2, McGowan 4-10 6-8 15, Stevens 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-68 22-34 87.
Halftime--Towson 30-26. 3-point goals--BU 4-14 (Dixon 1-1, Nicholls 1-3, LaPlante 1-1, Millett 0-1, Tulley 0-2, Prassas 1-4, Dufault 0-2). TU 5-14 (Pilione 4-8, Simpson 0-2, McGowan 1-4). Fouled out--None. Rebounds--BU 43 (Dixon, Tulley 10), TU 50 (Perry 16). Assists--BU 14 (Nicholls 4, Millett 4), TU 22 (Lanigan 7). Total fouls--BU 21, TU 17.
Pub Date: 3/04/99