By Chris Cobb
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
As a freshman, Allen Betrand had a limited role on the Towson men’s basketball team — averaging 4.6 points in 17.8 minutes and making just five starts.
Betrand acknowledged that last season he had yet to earn the trust of Towson head coach Pat Skerry (a comment that Skerry confirmed during a post-game press conference).
On Tuesday night at SECU Arena, Betrand gave Skerry plenty of reasons to trust him. He got the start and had a team-high and career-high 18 points in Towson’s 72-58 win over George Washington.
“He’s just trusting me with the ball,” Betrand said. “I think the first year he didn’t trust me very much because I was a freshman, but now he sees what I can do now. I can rebound, play defense. I can do it all.”
Betrand did it all Tuesday, shooting 7 for 15 and grabbing 6 rebounds in 32 minutes.
It wasn’t certain Betrand would get into the starting lineup. Skerry said he missed eight days of practice with a concussion. In the post-game press conference, Betrand admitted he had jitters before the season opener.
“I really was just anxious; I won’t lie,” Betrand said. “I wanted to show my hard work and show everybody that I could score the ball. Not just play defense.”
Betrand scored 13 of his 18 points in the first half and gave Towson a spark after a slow start.
In the first half, Towson went on many scoring runs, which was the difference in the outcome. The Tigers had a 9-0 run in the middle of the first half and to close the half, Towson produced a 13-2 run that was capped with a one-handed dunk from Charles Thompson.
The defense started both runs. Like the old saying goes, defense creates offense. Towson forced George Washington to 9 first-half turnovers thanks to a strong half-court defense.
“We always pride ourselves on being a good half-court defensive team and it starts there for us,” Skerry said. “I think the other thing I hope I’ve done better as a coach is the better our offense runs, the easier it’s going to be for our defense. Turnovers really hurt your transition defense.”
The Tigers offense looked a lot more smooth in their first game compared to last season. There was ball movement, which led to open shots.
“We got a new point guard,” Betrand said. “He moved the ball. Everybody’s starting to buy in. We didn’t buy in last year and that’s why we lost. Everybody is buying in as a team and that’s the result.”
With a year playing with each other, naturally there will be trust among teammates.
“I think it just comes with maturity,” said Juwan Gray, who had 17 points for Towson. “Last year we had 10 new players, and it was new to everybody. With this offseason, we all had a chance to play together a lot more and develop relationships. Those relationships off the court can transition into success on the court.”
Skerry is excited for this season. It’s just one game and he knows there will always be room for improvement, but he said this is his best team yet in some respects.
“By far the best working group we’ve had,” Skerry said. “We’ve got a whole lot of challenging games coming. We got to keep getting better so hopefully we’re talking about getting somewhere we hope to get to.”