UMBC

Towson, Md.-Freshman wing Shawn Grant (San Jose, Calif./St. Francis) scored a team season high 28 points, but a furious UMBC rally fell short at Towson as the Tigers edged the Retrievers, 82-77 before a raucous crowd of 2,893 at the Towson Center.

UMBC trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half, but Grant led a UMBC comeback. His fourth 3-point field goal of the game cut the TU lead to, 75-73, with 1:49 remaining. Grant would convert on a driving layup with 16 seconds remaining to again cut the gap to 79-77 with 16 seconds remaining. Towson’s Troy Franklin hit one of two free throws to extend the lead to 80-77 with 14 seconds to play, giving UMBC an opportunity to tie on the next possession, but Franklin stole the ball from Chris De La Rosa with six seconds left and fed Robert Nwankwo for the final bucket with two seconds remaining.

Grant, who scored 19 second-half points, hit 10 of 14 shots from the floor and four of six from behind the arc. His 28-point effort was four shy of a UMBC freshman single game scoring record. Sophomore wing Chauncey Gilliam (Columbia, Md./Brewster Acad.) added 13 points and freshman post Adrian Satchell (Windsor, Conn./Windsor) scored a season-high 11 points.  

The Tigers buried eight first half 3-point field goals en route to building a 44-37 advantage at intermission. Josh Thornton hit five from behind the arc and scored 17 first half points. Towson led by as many as 15 points at 39-24 on Thornton’s final 3-pointer of the half with 7:02 remaining in the stanza, but UMBC would rally to outscore the Tigers, 13-5 to cut the gap to seven points at the break. Grant hit four of five shots in 11 minutes of work to lead the Retrievers with nine points in the first 20 minutes.

Thornton led Towson with 23 points while Nwankwo had 17 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. The Tigers, who hit 14 three-point field goals vs. UMBC last season, were 11 of 22 from behind the arc in tonight’s game. 

UMBC outshot the Tigers, hitting 46.6 percent (27 of 58) from the floor, compared to 45.5 percent for the hosts (30 of 66).

UMBC travels to face Toledo at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.