Smith Erupts for 31, Pack Rips Towson 88-68

The Towson Tigers went home this New Years Eve having already seen the ball drop.....again....and again....and again, thanks to the on fire Sophomore forward, Tracy Smith, who poured in a career high 31 points on 10-15 shooting and 11-11 from the line. Thanks to the shooting of Towson guard Josh Thornton, State started the game by quickly going into a 10 point hole. But then the Pack answered, or rather Tracy Smith answered, by pillaging the Towson big men with powerful post moves and strong finishes. It was also another big day from Brandon Costner who looked extremely athletic and motivated, especially when, after beating his man off the dribble, Costner rose in the face of Jarrell Smith and threw down what was probably one of the hungriest dunks of his career.

The Pack looked surprisingly efficient without both Javier Gonzalez and Trevor Ferguson, both still sidelined with injuries. Half way through the game Lowe decided to try a quicker, more guard oriented line-up of Degand, Mays, Fells, Costner, and Smith, which proved to be a genius move. Taking away ball handling duties from Courtney Fells is a smart move to keep turnovers down and also to free him up to score more. We may very well see more of this if freshman PG Julius Mays continues his maturation. This was the second time Mays has gone over 5 assists and managed to not turn the ball over once. He had 7 assists with no turnovers against Lipscomb earlier in the season. Mays is proving to have an extremely high basketball IQ as advertised and is coming into his own very quickly for a freshman.

Big Ben continued to impress with 10 points and 7 boards in only 16 minutes. His decrease in minutes should not be over analyzed, Tracy Smith was simply unstoppable on this night so somebody had to sit.

We at Wolfpack Hoops are very excited about the direction this team is taking and feel there is a very good chance this team makes it back to the NCAA Tournament. The offense was run well, and Sidney impressed out of timeouts with a few drawn up plays that went for quick buckets. The team chemistry is amazing on the floor, and you can tell the players have bought into the system. The players must now ready themselves for the showdown in Gainesville against the Florida Gators on Saturday, January 3rd.

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