The Towson women’s basketball team had Drexel right where it wanted.
With the Dragons clinging to a one-point lead and less than 30 seconds left in the game, reserve junior guard Kayla Bacon had the ball while shadowed by redshirt junior guard Kionna Jeter, the Tigers’ top defender. Bacon, an Owings Mills resident and Seton Keough graduate, sought a teammate, but Towson’s defensive blanket was tight. Bacon picked up her dribble, allowing Jeter to move closer for a potential steal or turnover.
But sophomore guard Keishana Washington raced to Bacon, grabbed the ball from her, drove past two Tigers defenders, and banked in a layup with 12 seconds remaining to propel visiting Drexel to a 63-60 win at SECU Arena in Towson.
The Tigers (14-13, 9-7 Colonial Athletic Association) got 17 points and four rebounds from senior forward Nukiya Mayo and 17 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals from Jeter. But the defensive gaffe that opened a path for Washington’s layup haunted coach Diane Richardson.
“She drove the lane, and unfortunately, we didn’t step over and try to stop that or switch or call knowing that we needed to defend that,” she said. “We had to keep them out of the paint. But that last bucket in the paint, I think it made it difficult for us, and then we had to draw up a play for a 3.”
Washington, who scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half, helped the Dragons (21-7, 14-2) rebound from a 69-39 humbling at James Madison on Friday night — and move into a tie for first in the league with JMU — by being decisive.
“Keishana wanted the basketball, and that was big because we were looking at them and the clock trying to call the play to get it to Washington or [junior point guard Hannah] Nihill and then get a ball screen from [senior forward Bailey] Greenberg,” said coach Denise Dillon, who got a game-high 20 points, six rebounds and four assists from Greenberg. “Keishana came for the basketball, had some space, and didn’t even need a ball screen. She was just in attack mode.”
Even after Washington’s layup, Towson had a chance to send the game into overtime. After a timeout, Jeter dribbled the ball to the left wing, but had the ball poked away from her and out of bounds by Nihill.
Richardson called another timeout with 6.3 seconds left to set up a 3-point attempt for Jeter, who forgot how much time was still on the clock before hastily launching a shot several feet behind the arc. The ball clanged off the front of the rim, and Washington secured the rebound to cement the Tigers’ loss.
“I kind of missed the time,” said Jeter, who was in foul trouble all afternoon after collecting her third foul midway through the second quarter and her fourth late in the third. “I thought it was a little under six seconds. Nukiya was signaling me to come up, but I didn’t think I had enough time. So I shot it. I just didn’t push it enough.”
Towson’s bid to avoid a series sweep by Drexel seemed doomed from the start when the Dragons scored the game’s first eight points and 13 of the first 15 before enjoying a 25-15 advantage after the first quarter. The Tigers have trailed after the first 10 minutes in each of their past four games, which was not lost on Richardson.
“We know that we have to start faster than we do,” she said. “It’s an uphill battle. We know that, we’ve worked on that, we’ve talked about that, and we talk about that in the locker room every single game — that we have got to throw the first punch. And when you sit back and wait for the punches to come, then you find yourself reeling.”
The Dragons, who entered the game ranked eighth out of 10 teams in the conference in offensive rebounds, grabbed 15 offensive boards. They converted those rebounds into 17 second-chance points, which was a surprising number for Dillon.
“Rebounding is not our strength, but when you’re playing a team like Towson who can score quickly and often, you can’t settle for single possessions,” she said. “I wasn’t pleased with some of our girls not being in rebounding position and picking up fouls 90 feet from the basket. So understanding the discipline of that, if you have a chance, you go after it, and if not, you’re sprinting back on D. It was the recognition that they were taking off to try to get quick buckets, and that put us in some offensive rebounding positions.”
Towson finishes the regular season this week at William & Mary on Thursday and at Elon on Saturday before the CAA tournament begins March 11 in Elon, North Carolina.