Boxscore

photo courtesy of Mark Campbell

TOWSON, Md. -- UD point guard Brian Johnson lost control of the ball during his drive into the lane and the Blue Hens could not get off a final shot as Delaware dropped a heart-breaking 75-74 loss at Towson Wednesday night at the Towson Center.

Delaware, which fell to 12-18 overall and 5-12 in the Colonial Athletic Association, trailed 75-70 with 1:34 remaining, but Jawan Carter scored on a driving layup to make it a three-point game with 1:16 to play. Alphonso Dawson was then fouled after grabbing a rebound off a Tony Durant miss, and he hit two free throws to bring the Blue Hens within one with 42 seconds on the clock.

Following another miss by Durant the ball went out of bounds off the Tigers with 11 seconds to play, giving the Blue Hens a chance to win. However Johnson was double teamed during his drive to the lane and could not get off a shot, as the Blue Hens dropped to 0-9 in league road games.

Towson, which improved to 10-20 overall by snapping its three-game losing streak, tied the Blue Hens for ninth place in the conference standings with a 5-12 mark.

Senior Marc Egerson (at right) led Delaware with a game-high 23 points and went 4 of 6 from three-point range, while Johnson finished with 14 points and a team-best four assists. Dawson had 12 points and Carter added 11 for Delaware, which shot 49.0 percent from the field and went 20 of 22 from the free throw line.

Rocky Coleman tied his career-high by scoring 21 points for Towson, which posted its second one-point win over the Blue Hens this season. Junior Hairston contributed 13 points and a game-best nine rebounds for the Tigers, while Calvin Lee tied his career-high by pouring in 13 points off the bench.

“They punished us inside, and we didn’t have an answer for them,” UD third-year head coach Monté Ross said. “We had some costly turnovers that hurt us down the stretch. Edwin Santiago and Adam Pegg played well for us off the bench, but defensively we just didn’t do a good enough job against these guys.”

Delaware jumped out to a 13-6 lead with 13:25 remaining in the first half on a Dawson jumper, but Towson scored eight consecutive points to go up 14-13 at the 11:49 mark. The Tigers were still ahead by just a point at 24-23 after a Tim Crossin jumper, but the Blue Hens went on a 7-0 run to take a 30-24 advantage with 3:15 to play on a driving layup by Johnson.

The Blue Hens were still up six before Troy Franklin scored just before the buzzer to cut the Delaware advantage to 39-35 at the half.

The Delaware lead remained between two and five points during the first 10 minutes of the second half as both teams had little trouble scoring, and the Blue Hens were still up four before baskets by Josh Thornton and Robert Nwankwo tied the game at 57-57 with 8:15 remaining.

Coleman then drilled back-to-back three-pointers to extend the run to 10-0 and put Towson up 63-57 with 6:29 to play. The Tigers were still ahead 65-60 at the 5:47 mark, but a Johnson free throw and a Dawson jumper made it a 65-63 game with five minutes left.

Coleman answered with jumper for Towson, but Johnson countered with a pair of free throws to again bring UD within two at 67-65 at the 4:09 mark. The Tigers extended their advantage to 71-67, but Johnson knocked down a three-pointer to pull the Blue Hens within 71-70 with 2:48 on the clock. Hairston then scored on consecutive possessions to put Towson ahead 75-70 at the 1:34 mark before Delaware scored the final four points of the game.

The Blue Hens close out their regular season on Saturday with a 2 p.m. home game against James Madison on Senior Day.