The Towson women’s basketball program got an early glimpse at life without Kionna Jeter. And the picture is rosier than one might think.
Despite their leading scorer sitting out with an injured right shoulder, the Tigers blasted visiting Drexel, 77-62, on Sunday afternoon at SECU Arena to earn a much-needed split and remain in second place in the Colonial Athletic Association standings.
Towson (12-5, 7-3 CAA), which will likely not be able to catch Delaware (17-2, 14-1) for the regular-season championship, was powered by four players in double digits, led by sophomore point guard Aleah Nelson’s game-high 23 points. Freshman power forward Allie Kubek added 20 points, and senior center LaKaitlin Wright and junior shooting guard Shavonne Smith scored 10 each.
The display was a refreshing development for an offense that lacked Jeter, who entered the game ranked ninth in the country in scoring at 23.4 points per game and is being discussed as a possible WNBA draft pick.
“I’m liking what I see,” Nelson, a Baltimore resident and McDonogh graduate, said of the team’s potential without Jeter. “Everybody’s stepping up and just doing different roles. Maybe somebody else will have to step up and play tougher defense. Maybe somebody else will have to look to score more. I know Kionna and I have been the 1-2 punch. If she wasn’t hitting it, I was hitting it, and vice versa. But I think it’s looking bright for our future when she graduates.”
Tigers coach Diane Richardson said Jeter, who wore a sling to protect her shoulder, suffered the injury in a 72-62 loss at Northeastern on Feb. 14 in which she played 26 minutes but scored only two points. In Saturday’s 71-55 setback to the Dragons, Jeter did not start, but played 20 minutes and scored zero points — the first time in her career at Towson that she did not record a point in a game.
Junior Skye Williams made her second consecutive start in Jeter’s place, finishing with five points, four rebounds and three turnovers.
Richardson, who is hopeful that Jeter will benefit from some rest to return soon, said she thought the team was better prepared for Sunday’s game knowing beforehand that Jeter would be absent.
“Today, we were locked in and understanding that she wasn’t going to be here,” she said. “So people had to step up, and we had some players step up.”
Nelson was her usual playmaking self, recording a game-high seven assists in addition to her 23 points. Kubek set career highs in points, 3-pointers (three) and rebounds (14) to register her third double double and first since Dec. 18.
Kubek, who had 14 points and seven rebounds in the first half, said she got a little pep talk from Jeter.
“Before the game, she came up to me and said, ‘I need 15 [points] and 10 rebounds].’ I said, ‘I got you. It’s Senior Day, and you’re out. We’re going to win this for you and all of the seniors,’” she said. “So I needed to step up to the plate today, especially without our leading scorer. So I just brought my confidence to the table and shots the shots when I was open.”
Nine of the 10 Tigers players who made it to the floor scored at least two points, and Richardson was delighted by the offensive diversity.
“We can play, and we can score. They just needed the confidence to do that,” she said. “I’ve known all along that we’ve got an offensive-minded team. It’s an equal-opportunity offense. So everybody has an opportunity to score, and they did that today.”
For the second consecutive game, junior shooting guard Keishana Washington paced Drexel (10-7, 7-5) in scoring with 17 points and three assists. Junior power forward Kate Connolly contributed 15 points, and senior point guard Hannah Nihill had 11 points, but the Dragons were limited to shooting 23.3% from 3-point range (7-for-30) after converting 43.8% (7-for-16) on Saturday and went 3-of-5 from the free-throw line compared with Towson’s 21-for-23 outing at the stripe.
Nelson said the Tigers stayed primarily in man-to-man defense to contain Drexel.
“I think that really made us be a lot more disciplined,” she said. “We had to stay with our man, being there to help. And we’re a lot quicker, too, and more athletic. So I think it really helped us play on-ball defense and play off the screens and stuff like that.”
Towson also made a living on the boards, outrebounding the Dragons 44-17, including 17-6 on the offensive glass. The Tigers made many of those offensive rebounds count, converting 24 second-chance points to Drexel’s two.
“I think we just boxed everybody out and pursued the rebound,” Kubek said. “That was the main emphasis. Pursue the rebound instead of waiting for it to come to us.”
As well as Towson played without Jeter, both Nelson and Kubek stressed that they’d rather have her on the floor than without.
“It was a little difficult,” Kubek said. “She’s our leading scorer, and she scores, like, 30 points per game. But we really had to step up to the plate. We really want to play with her, but with her shoulder, she can’t. So we’ve got to do it for her. We had to step up, everybody, including myself.”
TOWSON@DELAWARE
Saturday, 1 p.m.
Video: FloHoops.com